Jedburgh Abbey Ramparts

NT 65037 20497 Archaeological monitoring was required during repair works to Jedburgh Abbey Ramparts, from March -December 2020. Standing building recording was carried out on the rampart wall prior to repair/removal.

The works have identified the construction process for the ramparts along with uncovering the remains of five intact human burials in deposits identified below the rampart construction deposits. Earlier test-pitting works indicated that there was no physical evidence for an earlier retaining wall for the ramparts. The soil profile behind the rampart wall, and nature of construction of the wall suggest that prior to rampart construction the existing landscape sloped away to the S and E, both away from the abbey and the courthouse, with accumulations of hill wash and slope wash forming the soils for what would have originally formed part of the abbey graveyard. Excavation also revealed the remains of a small dry stone wall, which likely acted as a terrace (or boundary) wall to help reduce soil erosion behind it, or to create bounded areas within the former graveyard, and it is possible that further walls of this nature existed on the site prior to the construction of the ramparts. The construction of the ramparts has been found to have cut through these existing soil profiles and disturbed at least four intact graves (the likelihood is that a far greater number of graves were disturbed during the rampart construction), with the disturbed remains discarded at the time of construction. This is corroborated by the large proportion of disarticulated remains of both humans and animals found within the dumped material to raise the ground level during rampart construction, which were likely disturbed and displaced from land to the E of the ramparts (former lower churchyard, and later cattle market).

A double burial (Individuals A and B), containing an adult male and an adult female, in supine positions with hands at or under the hips, on a E/W orientation, was uncovered and excavated with samples taken for palaeoparasitology, aDNA, isotope analyses and radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon dating reveals that these articulated human remains date to the 15th century, with a further partial burial dating to the 16th century (Individual E – was still within the unexcavated section).

The burials on-site seem to have undergone repeated disturbance during the active use of the graveyard. The construction of the rampart walls appears to have consisted of a foundation cut filled with large, mortar-bonded, rounded boulders and cobbles. The cut was through the existing soil profiles to provide a solid backing edge for the lower parts of the backing wall material, whilst the upper courses of the backing wall was built up against the E facing slope of the dumped material used to raise the ground level of the ramparts. In parts, this backing wall and rubble material was sporadically bonded with a sand or gravel-based mortar, likely in locations where the backing wall material was at risk of collapse or instability. This dry stone backing wall material was then subsequently faced by a mortar bonded, sandstone wall constructed from cut, but undressed sandstone block work.

The rampart wall was constructed during one phase. The presence

of a two pence coin dating to the latter part of Charles I’s reign (1642–1650) in the dumped material used to construct the ramparts in Section 6, indicates that the ramparts were not constructed before this date, putting an earliest date of construction of the ramparts at 1642, and a latest date of construction of the ramparts at 1775. The ramparts were altered over time with both sets of access stairs mapped by the mid-19th century, a single set of steps appears to have been either a later addition following initial rampart construction, or subsequently modified and repaired at a later date. Archive: NRHE

Funder: Scottish Borders Council

Ian Hill and Michelle Gamble – Heritage and Archaeological Research Practice (HARP)

(Source: DES Vol 22)