Archaeology Notes

Event ID 692351

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/692351

NO12SW 1151 c.118 237

NO 118 237 A watching brief was required to monitor the excavation of a 70m long service trench around the site of the proposed concert hall, in close proximity to the medieval heart of Perth. No significant archaeological features were identified.

Report to be lodged with Perth and Kinross SMR and the NMRS.

Sponsor: SSE Power Distribution.

Martin Cook 2003

NO 119 238 An archaeological excavation was undertaken between January and June 2003 on a site lying just beyond the NE corner of Perth's medieval burgh defences, in advance of the construction of a new concert hall. Although its exact location has never been established, there was a royal castle in this area until it was destroyed during a flood in 1209. After the destruction of the castle, the area was given to the Blackfriars monastery, and developed into an industrial suburb.

Excavation revealed a deep, broad ditch, aligned roughly N-S, with waterlogged fills. This probably represents part of the medieval castle defences. The ditch was crossed by a stone-built bridge or causeway, incorporating an arch. Large assemblages of artefacts and faunal remains were recovered from midden deposits within the ditch. A small group of human burials, cut into a floor surface adjacent to the backfilled ditch, were associated with the medieval chapel of St Laurence. Archaeomagnetic dating of a hearth sealed below this floor yielded a date of AD 1360-95 for its last firing.

Post-medieval activity on the site included a series of clay-lined tanning pits, along with foundations of stone buildings, stone-lined wells and a culvert. Foundations of 18th and 19th-century tenements and shops, demolished in the 1930s, were revealed below the former Horse Cross car park.

Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsor: Perth and Kinross Council.

A Cox 2003