Crarae Garden, Monastic Settlement (Possible)
Date December 2007
Event ID 966297
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/966297
As part of a major Heritage Lottery Funded project to improve the property
at Crarae Garden, it was proposed to construct new offices, sheds and storage units for the garden staff in the area immediately to the north-east of the graveyard. Prior to any construction work for the new garden facilities, an archaeological evaluation was carried out in September 2005 by CFA Archaeology Ltd. The results quickly revealed that further large scale excavation work would be required. In June 2006 a team from CFA, ably assisted by 10 volunteers and several groups from local primary schools, undertook the work. An area measuring c.31m by 24m was stripped of topsoil and excavated. Two linear ditches running parallel to the burn were the main discoveries. The inner ditch, closest to the graveyard, was the widest and deepest. Along its inner edge there was a slight terrace which appears to have formed the foundation for a stone bank or rough wall. The stone from this bank had collapsed into the ditch and included burnt and unburnt animal bone, metal artefacts and a lot of pottery. Over 400 pottery sherds have now been identified as medieval in date, probably belonging to the 14th-15th centuries. One set of sherds from the very base of the ditch were from a medieval Spanish amphora. The most exciting find, however, proved to be an iron arrowhead with a leaf shaped blade and tubular socket.
The outer ditch was narrower, shallower, and had a 3m wide break which appears to have been an entrance gap. This ditch contained many rounded stones and quite a lot of pottery. The entrance gap appears to line up well with an elongated area of paving positioned inside the inner ditch which could be the remains of a roadway leading up from the entrance to the church. This might also explain a dark stain at the base of the inner ditch which could be the remains of a timber sill beam to support a bridge over the inner ditch.
A series of postholes to the south-east of the paved roadway may represent the remains of a timber building perhaps as much as 7m long by 5m wide.
Initial thoughts would suggest that the ditches are boundary ditches which probably once had stony banks on their inside edge forming an enclosure around the medieval church site. Although many of the artefacts found in the ditches were medieval it is possible that the ditches were cut at an earlier period. Many early church sites are often enclosed by ditches, for example on Iona. The area around the church may have been the focus for a settlement and it may have formed a focus for exchanging/trading goods and also for limited manufacture. Evidence was recovered for metalworking on the site.
(CRA07 010)
Information from NTS (SCS) November 2013
