Archaeology Notes

Event ID 688376

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/688376

NO43SW 49 4033 3021

(NO 4033 3021) Site of St Clement's Church and Graveyard (NR)

OS 1:500 plan, Dundee, Forfarshire, (1870)

St Clement's Church was very small, measuring roughly 42' E-W by c. 18 1/2'. The arched roof was supported by a line of pillars formed of light clustered shafts. The manse, which also remained nearly entire till recently, stood a little to the SE, adjoining the Old Grammar School (NO43SW 50). It was a massive building of three storeys, and a projecting turnpike stair. The churchyard, which extended over the slope from the Marketgate to the Haven, and from Tyndal's Wynd westward to where Crichton Street is now, was the only common burial place within the old burgh until Queen Mary, in 1564, granted the Greyfriars Yard for the purpose, after which St Clement's ceased to be used.

A Maxwell 1891.

The church dedicated to St Clement martyr stood nearly on the site of the present Town House. The date of its foundation is not known. When buildings on the site were removed in 1872, relics of the old church were discovered, amongst them being the bases of some clustered pillars, two piscinae, the capital of a pillar bearing the initials of Andrew Abercrombie, Provost in 1513, and sculptured tablets with the arms of James I of Scotland. The church fabric of St Clement's must have been destroyed at the siege of Dundee in 1547; and in 1558 it is certain that the building was unroofed and ruinous.

A C Lamb 1895.

Site occupied by City Square.

Visited by OS (J L D), 17 April 1958.