Excavation

Date 30 June 2018 - 14 July 2018

Event ID 1089999

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1089999

NM 86079 43497 MacDonald (1974) hypothesised that the vallum monasterii of the early Christian monastery, founded by St Moluag in 562, can still be identified in the current field boundaries around the parish church located in Clachan on Volunteers digging in Trench 3, Lismore Glebe. The aim of this year’s fieldwork, 30 June – 14 July 2018, was to test this hypothesis and to assess the nature of specific features within the boundaries of the glebe. Below the existing dry stone walls a turf bank was identified on the northern side of the boundary surmounted by a pebble path and a limestone cobble surface at two locations on the eastern boundary; unfortunately, no secure dating material was retrieved from either feature type. Significantly, no ditch was found in any of the trenches located over the field boundaries indicating that if the existing boundary of the glebe land follows that of the vallum monasterii then the latter would have had to have been in the form of a bank or wall. The existence of a lower cemetery was also confirmed by the excavations. Although only the upper level of the cemetery was exposed, this revealed that there had been much intercutting of graves and, somewhat surprisingly,

a late phase of metalworking and what appeared to be an in situ cooking hearth, complete with fragments of burnt bone. The lower cemetery was shown to be enclosed by a limestone clay bonded wall which was edged by a stone culvert.

The probable foundation cobbles of an 18th-century track, purported to have been built on the order of the residing minister, so that the populous didn’t have to pass so close to the manse, was also discovered. Adjacent was a probable 18th-century rubble drain and a probable late 19th-century low dry stone wall. A fragment of limestone with a mason’s mark was recovered from within a dump of mostly limestone

rubble.

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: Heritage Lottery Fund

Clare Ellis – Argyll Archaeology

(Source: DES, Volume 19)