Excavation
Date 1 December 1998 - 31 January 1999
Event ID 546294
Category Recording
Type Excavation
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/546294
NT 5486 3417 Excavations were carried out over December 1998 and January 1999 on the site of the presumed Lay Brothers Cloister. Ten trenches in total were excavated, nine within the gardens and a single trench in the area to the E of Abbey Street, against the interior W perimeter wall of the abbey itself. A magnetometer survey had revealed possible wall lines in the area of the gardens to the N of Abbey House. The magnetometer survey also indicated a possible wall line running E-W below the current Abbey Street, indicating a possible continuation further westwards of buildings presently confined to the enclosed abbey grounds.
Excavation around the lawn and flowerbeds of the ornamental garden located potential abbey masonry in one trench, situated on the E edge of the garden against the inside face of the Abbey Street W wall. The other seven trenches exposed a variety of drainage and landscape features, some of which may be early in date. The principal structure on the site was a large, rubble-filled trench running diagonally across the site from SW-NE, which may be a robbed-out wall line backfilled with rubble, but could also be the principal subsoil drain for the ornamental garden. An E-W cut located in two trenches could be the edge of a scarped terrace of monastic period, of which the general level of 86m OD would represent the upper terrace. It was noted that the only early finds were from below the edge of this terrace.
The single trench within the abbey grounds indicated that the 1m of later deposits found W of Abbey Street had been completely cleared away in building clearance works E of Abbey Street, with the result that the turf lies directly on the natural subsoil in this area. It was, however, noted that the level of the subsoil exactly matched the 86m OD found on the possible terrace W of Abbey Street, and appears to be part of the same levelled surface. Additionally it became clear that the column bases found in the chamber adjacent to Abbey Street do not continue to the W and that the late road wall at the W end of the columned chamber sits on the original W wall of the chamber. The range to the W of the abbey did not therefore continue beneath Abbey Street, as the magnetometer survey results may have suggested.
A small trench placed to the E of the gable end of Abbey House located masonry directly below the gravel driveway, indicating that the original guest house extended further W.
