Excavation

Date 6 November 2000 - 12 November 2000

Event ID 1030690

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1030690

Minor excavations were carried out in the graveyard at St Clements church at Rodel, Isle of Harris in order to accommodate three lightning conductor base plates. The proposed works involved the digging by hand of three trenches each 1m in depth. The trenches were positioned around the outside of the church to take account of the new lightning rods on the tower and transepts. The trenches were placed in such a way as to avoid known graves, especially current ones.

The present church of St Clements apparently dates back to the early 16th century and is likely to be on the site of an earlier structure. Consequently burials have taken place in the surrounding graveyard for at least 480 years and presumably for centuries before that, and only a small percentage of these are marked by a memorial.

The excavation indicated two main points: the subsurface masonry of the church appears to be in good condition, and there are clearly unmarked graves at a general depth of 1m throughout the graveyard.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

Kirkdale Archaeology