Archaeology Notes

Event ID 796604

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/796604

NS99SW 19 90977 91838

NS 909 918 A watching brief on lighting installations around the church produced a small amount of human bone, buried gravestones and a probable coffin handle. The absence of buried walls around the church tends to confirm that the pre-Reformation church (attributed to St Serf, 7th century) lies under the present building (by James Gillespie Graham, 1813).

Sponsor: Clackmannanshire Heritage Trust.

D Bowler 1998

NS99SW 9097 9182 A watching brief (SUAT code CL03) was carried out by David Bowler of the Scottish Urban Archaeological Trust (SUAT), during works to install exterior lighting around Clackmannan Parish Church on the 21st and 22nd of September 1998. The work was arranged by Andrew Millar on behalf of Clackmannanshire Heritage Trust who also funded the work. The work involved, amongst other things the digging of narrow, shallow trenches for power cables for the luminaires that were being installed around the church. The brief being necessary incase these groundworks revealed earlier structures, burials or monuments. The trenches were hand dug and backfilled almost immediately after the cables had been laid.

An E-W trench on the S side of the Church, 0.25m wide and 0.4m deep was dug starting 5m E of the W end of the Church. The sections were typically 0.25m of turf with roots, then 0.15m of grey-brown sandy loam, these type of sections were repeated in the other trenches. No pottery was visable though some human jaw bones were found which were reburied where discovered after the cables had been put in. Near the E end of this trench, just beyond the SE corner of the Church the edge of a buried gravestone was seen 0.35m down.

The E-W trench then turned N and passed across the E end of the church and on through a duct in the main access path. 0.5m N of the access path another gravestone was seen 0.3m down.

On the N side of the church some skull fragments and a rusty iron object, possibly a coffin handle, were found close to the enclosure of Robert Moodie, Minister. The bones were again reburied where found.

The author commends the contractors on the minimal below ground disturbance they made. The three finds of human bone are less than was to be expeced. The two buried gravestones are not surprising and probably many more would be found if further excavation would be needed.

The absence of walls is significant as the church was completely encircled with trenches so if the present building was overlapping previous ones they would have been seen. This tends to confirm that the earlier buildings are inside and underneath the present one and should be looked out for during any further work inside the church. The variety and high quality of funery monuments in the kirkyard, many of which are threatened with decay, was also noted.

Sponsor: Clackmannanshire Heritage Trust

NMRS MS/991/130 (SUAT Ltd)