Excavation

Date 15 July 2017 - 22 July 2017

Event ID 1039073

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1039073

NM 86066 43501 (NM84SE 5) The second season of this community excavation, 15–22 July 2017, revealed the tower wall has been extensively robbed of stone and the majority of the mortar has dissolved with a gritty soil like substance remaining. However, given the sheer width of the three walls it is felt very likely that the structure was actually a tower, albeit probably not a very high one, which had been added at a later date to the W end of the pre-existing nave. The southern entrance into the nave was re-exposed and recorded; the wall and door just about survive, but the majority of the stone has been robbed. Excavation also demonstrated that

the N nave wall near to the current graveyard wall has been wholly robbed out. However, it was amongst all the small rubble back fill of this trench that a carved sandstone dogtooth moulding that would have adorned perhaps a window or door was recovered and then another was found in an old spoil heap that was being excavated in the hope of just such a find.

Further samples of mortar for radiocarbon dating and analysis were taken from the nave and tower walls. Small samples of sandstone were also taken from the nave for specialist analysis. Further assessment of the condition of preservation of the remains was also made.

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, The Hunter Trust and The MacDougall McCallum Foundation, USA

Clare Ellis – Argyll Archaeology

(Source: DES, Volume 18)