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Balmerino Survey
Date March 2010
Event ID 639473
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/639473
To the N of the cloisters only one abbey building still stands. This is the so-called Abbey Barn. This building measures 20m from WSW to ENE by 7.2m in breadth over brown, sandstone-rubble walls 0.9m in thickness that are thickened to 1.2m at the gable. The building is a quadrilateral, its W gable aligned with the cloisters but orientated obliquely to the N-S cloister ranges along its length for reasons that are now obscure, but probably indicates that it had to accommodate existing structures. It stands two storeys in height and has a steeply pitched roof. There is a scarcement along the inside of the walls above the ground-floor windows to support the first-floor. Any original window lights in the first floor have gone but might be expected to have had dormers. There is a skewputt on the NW corner of the building which has a heraldic shield of unknown provenance. On the S elevation an entrance with a deeply chamfered gothic arch, formed from two monolithic voussoirs that would be appropriate in a late-13th century, or early-14th century context, is located 6m from the W gable and another opening with similar chamfered quoins, lies some 5m further E. This is a double width entrance suitable for a barn, but its lintel is a modern timber and the upper quoins are insertions. The original opening has been widened after the Reformation, probably on the right-hand side since the stonework on the left looks undisturbed. The domestic scale entrance to the W is inappropriate in a barn. Indeed, in between the two entrances there is a narrow square-headed window, and such an opening has been observed as lighting the basement at Fetternear Palace (NJ71NW 7). This opening is shorter and broader than might be expected in a barn or a military context and also bears comparison with the larger ground-floor window between two entrances in the Prior’s lodging at St Andrews (NO51NE 2, SC1203740). A possible blocked window opening in the W gable appears to be visible in a photograph published by Lewis and Scott (2010, 68). These domestic scale features suggest a use as a guesthouse or abbot’s residence. The excavations by Scotia revealed an extensive area of cobbles to the W of the building, with a distinct camber suggesting a roadway. The foundation of a thick wall that ran up to the S end of the W gable on the same alignment may be the remains of a precinct wall enclosing the outer court of the monastery. The E wall that was revealed in the excavations appears to be abutted by the S wall, and the N wall also abuts the quoins of an earlier building to the E (Lewis and Scott 2010, 66). These features indicate an earlier building to the E on the same alignment to which this structure was added. The building was incorporated into a farmsteading in the post-medieval period (NO32SE 2.04).
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD, HS) March 2010
