Excavation

Date 4 February 2015 - 22 March 2017

Event ID 1046511

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1046511

Addyman Archaeology was contracted by LDN Architects on behalf of the Church of St. John the Evangelist, of the Scottish Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Edinburgh, to undertake archaeological mitigation associated with the construction of a new church hall and renovations within the crypt. Historic building recording and archaeological monitoring during downtakings and ground-breaking works were undertaken, as well as the excavation of a c. 3.8m x 3m trench to facilitate the installation of a new lift-shaft in the crypt area. The historic building recorded included the recording of elements impacted by the redesign of the existing hall structure: the east and west gable ends of the existing hall, the south wall of the dormitory and the monuments associated with it, and the east terrace wall and its associated monuments. Also recorded were monuments in the crypt area affected by the redesign; two of these, the Paterson and MacDowell monuments, were moved and re-sited. The lift-shaft excavations, situated within the John Paterson lair, encountered the substantial foundations of the Paterson box tomb memorial and six inhumations of the Paterson family, four of which had been interred in wood coffins and two in zinc-alloy metal coffins. Once excavated and recorded these individuals with their associated coffin furniture were re-interred in the same trench, outwith the footprint of the lift workings. Also encountered in the Paterson lair trench were the remains of an original stone-lined drain, constructional strata relating to the initial building of the church, and pre-church garden soil deposits associated with the area's use as a market garden before 1816.

Information from Philip Karsgaard (Addyman Archaeology January 2017. OASIS ID: addymana1-284155

OASIS ID: addymana1-284155