Archaeology Notes

Event ID 710400

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/710400

NT08NE 10 0903 8753.

(NT 0903 8753) The Rottenraw Port (Rotten Row now called Queen Anne Street) which was situated near the top of South Chapel Street (now Randolph Street) was one of the six ports of the town of Dunfermline. These were probably built immediately after the burgh received its charter from the abbot in 1395.

Henderson, however, states that the Rottenraw or postern gate was probably erected in 1607. It is noticed in the Burgh Records on 3rd May 1735. This port appears to have occupied the site at the top of Rotten Raw near the S entrance of North Chapel Street. We cannot tell when this port was removed and nothing is known of its history unless by tradition, viz. that when the port was taken down (? that of c. 1395) it was re-erected at the top of a close known as Bardner's Close. If this tradition is correct then we get at the date of its erection. On the keystone of the arch fronting the street there is a long shield, some mutilated initials, and the date 1607.

E Henderson 1879; OS 1:1056 map, Fifeshire, Dunfermline, (1854)

No further information.

Visited by OS (D W R) 18 February 1974.