Archaeology Notes

Event ID 707212

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/707212

NS83SW 5 83587 30952

(NS 8359 3095) St Bride's Ch. (NR) (Remains of).

OS 6" map, Lanarkshire, 1st ed., (1898).

The church of Douglas existed in the 12th century but the present structure is of considerably later date. Some portions of Norman capitals, piled up in a recess of the south side of the later structure, are all that remain of it. The present structure of which little but the choir remains, appears to have been built about the end of the 14th century.

D MacGibbon and T Ross 1897.

St Bride's Church: The ruins of the choir adjoin the modern chapel. On plan it measures 12.5m x 6.2m. Its walls are some 2.0m in height, save for the east gable which contains a clock tower. The whole structure including the tower, is of considerable age. This tower bears the date '1612' (?) faintly inscribed in stone , and also the date 'AD 1565' on the clock face. The arched entrance is in the south wall near the west end. The Norman relics are within the church precincts.

No additional historical information was encountered.

Visited by OS (JLD) 4 August 1954.

NS 835 309 Archaeological monitoring was undertaken in June 2004 during the excavation of a deep cable pit directly in front of the N entrance to the church (NS83SW 5). This work was part of a larger trenching exercise bringing a power cable across the N graveyard into the church.

The excavations revealed thin topsoil and paving overlying a thick single layer of brown graveyard material complete with dislocated human skeletal remains, overlying natural gravel. The main deposit in the graveyard is seen to bank against the foundations of the church and may have been an imported deposit to deepen the soil levels for inhumations, presumably post-14th century in date.

The trench exposed the substantial nature of the 19th-century reconstruction as well as revealing the absence of intact burials near the entrance of the church.

A further watching brief was undertaken in September 2004 during the installation of new services across the graveyard. Nothing of archaeological interest was revealed.

Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsor: HS.

D Stewart 2004