Watching Brief

Date 30 January 2002 - 13 February 2002

Event ID 1034265

Category Recording

Type Watching Brief

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1034265

NT 2679 7391 A watching brief was undertaken in January and February 2002 during the excavation of service tracks across the courtyard area in the general area of known Palace/Abbey buildings.The presence of stone walls pre-dating the later 19th-centurychurch structure (providing footings and delimiting the latter on its E side at least) suggests a more complex structural history than might be first assumed. In addition, the area outwith the walls was equally complex, featuring imported clays, which in turn received a drain. The area W and N of the church was then infilled to create a new ground level, significantly higher than its predecessor. The drain was then introduced, although whether inside or outside a building is not known. Lastly the church was constructed utilising the levelled and truncated remains of both residual surfaces and masonry.It is likely that the midden-rich deposits noted as exterior dumps,which appeared to extend across the entire footprint of the site,date to the 16th or early 17th century (on pottery evidence), and the drain was laid in some time before the church was constructed(1850), when the drain was truncated.It is also likely that the walls revealed both within the courtyard and below later masonry associated with the school activity pre-date the midden infill, and as such are parts of stone buildings earlier than the 16th- to early 17th-century rebuilding programme.There was no further opportunity to investigate the extent and date of this masonry. However, it is likely that this relates to the late use of the Abbey precinct, still a functioning monastic house,and that the landscaping and drainage date to the immediate post-Reformation conversions to the monastic layout, generally depicted on Gordon of Rothiemay’s perspective of 1647.

G Ewart and D Stewart 2002

Sponsor: Ben Tindall Architects

Kirkdale Archaeology