Excavation

Date 15 March 2000 - 30 March 2000

Event ID 1032124

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1032124

NO 515 165 Proposed remedial works for the stabilisation of the monastic boundary wall in the vicinity of the monastic reredorter were monitored in March 2001. The boundary wall presently defines an area of garden associated with post-monastic occupation during the 18th and 19th centuries. It was found to have slumped outwards due to two factors: the weight of imported soils on its N side, and the wall itself was very poorly founded. A slit trench was excavated against its S face and revealed infilled deposits associated with late monastic activity on the evidence of pottery retrieved. The area also featured at least one stone-capped drain of medieval date, which is probably linked to the great drain which serves the nearby reredorter. The latter was extensively restored and cleared during renovation work by the Marquis of Bute in the later 19th century, and consequently the precise contextual sequence between the fragment of drain identified and the infill deposits discovered in the slit trench was lost. The date of the boundary wall and its associated deposits remains unclear as they respect monastic divisions of the area to the S of the cathedral. Cartographic evidence suggests that this area was a service space, in turn linked with the established route to the harbour.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

A Radley and G Ewart 2001

Kirkdale Archaeology