Watching Brief

Date 26 June 2000

Event ID 546296

Category Recording

Type Watching Brief

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/546296

NT 5486 3417 The excavation of wall foundation trenches was monitored in June 2000 in advance of a new service room extension to the S gable of Orchard Cottage. The general area has seen several episodes of archaeological assessment and recording, none of which have revealed any structural remains associated with the abbey and its assumed precinct buildings. The present Orchard Cottage (dated to 1998) appears to fall within Capt. Steadman's Orchard, as shown on John Wood's 1826 plan of Melrose and Gattonside.

The finds from the upper deposits suggest cultivation towards the end of the 19th century, but the generally clean aspect of the lower fill suggests redeposited natural soils, imported to form the garden once the boundary walls were in place. The walls themselves do not appear to be part of the earliest settlement of the abbey (12th to late 14th century) and may be better regarded as part of a later period of land use, where extensive gardens and orchards were laid out at a time when the 13th-century abbey community had been reduced in size and the abbey plan rationalised.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

G Ewart 2000

Kirkdale Archaeology