Archaeology Notes

Event ID 771993

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/771993

NO50SE 21.00 56879 03483

Museum [NAT]

OS (GIS) MasterMap, July 2010.

NO50SE 21.01 56855 03487 50 East Shore, Ship's Chandlers Shop

See also NO50SE 61.

For (contiguous) Sun Tavern and Harbour Head House, see NO50SE 40.

At Anstruther, the monks of Balmerino had a chapel named St Ayle's (NO50SE 13). In 1535, they feued their property to Thomas Wood. St Ayle's House, or part of it, is still standing.

A H Millar 1895

There is no property known as St Ayle's House, but at NO 5687 0347, within the grounds of the Scottish Fisheries Museum, is a building known as the Abbot's Lodgings. It is currently being restored and it is not easily dated.

Visited by OS (JP) 29 May 1974.

Scottish Fisheries Museum, Harbourhead, Anstruther Easter. A complicated two-storey group forming a quadrangle, restored and converted to its present use by W Murray Jack in 1968-70. Entrance in the S range, which is late 19th century, incorporating an earlier wall. N range dated 1721 but with a pair of lancets from the medieval St Ayles chapel (NO50SE 13) which stood on the site. The brick E range was built as a cooperage, c. 1850. At its end, a late 16th century house with a projecting stairtower and, inside, a large moulded fireplace. The W range (NO50SE 21.01), a former ship's chandler's shop and house, has a moulded doorpiece of c. 1700.

J Gifford 1992.

The museum has been extended to incorporate the workshop and store of the (former) boatbuilding yard of Messrs. Smith and Hutton, for which see NO50SE 61.

Visited by RCAHMS (RJCM), 11 March 1998.

[Scottish Fisheries Museum 1998].