Archaeology Notes

Event ID 669182

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/669182

NJ66SE 42 69048 64056

(NJ 6903 6404) Church (NR)

OS 6" map, (1960)

The old church of Banff, dedicated to St Mary, was erected in 1471 and demolished in 1797 leaving only a south aisle.

Name Book 1867; A Ramsay 1886.

All that remains of St Mary's Church is the so-called south aisle, which is a burial vault of the Ogilvies containing 16th century graves and part of the N wall, incorporating grave-slabs erected before 1797, when the church was mostly demolished. The graveyard is disused.

Visited by OS (NKB) 1 February 1968.

NJ 6903 6404 A project for the restoration and conservation of the Banff (Ogilvie) Aisle made provision for limited archaeological observation and excavation to lower and level the ground both inside and outside the aisle. The work was carried out in March and June 2003.

No archaeological features or finds were evident during the lowering of the exterior ground level. However, reduction of the 20th-century floor level within the aisle exposed the lowest detail of the Ogilvie tomb. It was evident that the interior ground level was made up, to a depth exceeding 0.75m, by using material from the late 18th-century landscaping of the surrounding graveyard. This fill contained small amounts of disarticulated human bone and a single coin - a copper turner or twopence of Charles I, dated between 1642-50. Above this, a hard-packed layer of black sandy clay formed the floor level, with reused red sandstone slabs placed beneath the columns of the tomb and in front of the doorway into the aisle.

Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsor: Aberdeenshire Historic Kirkyards Project.

J C Murray 2003