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Edinburgh, Cowgate, St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church
Building(S) (Post Medieval), Midden (Medieval), Comb (Medieval), Pot (Medieval)
Site Name Edinburgh, Cowgate, St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church
Classification Building(S) (Post Medieval), Midden (Medieval), Comb (Medieval), Pot (Medieval)
Canmore ID 78606
Site Number NT27SE 544
NGR NT 26124 73610
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/78606
- Council Edinburgh, City Of
- Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District City Of Edinburgh
- Former County Midlothian
NT27SE 544 2611 7352
An evaluation in advance of potential development was carried out in April 1990 on the site of a disused bowling green, SW of St Patrick's Church. A trial trench and two small test pits demonstrated the existence of a World War II concrete water tank across the whole site. Beneath this a series of midden deposits, dated by pottery to the 15th-16th centuries, were excavated to a depth of 0.65m before trench collapse forced abandonment. No structural exidence was recovered, but it was shown that the lowest levels of the excavated deposits were waterlogged.
M Collard 1992.
Excavation (November 2006 - February 2007)
NT 2610 7350 Excavations were undertaken at St Patrick's Church, Cowgate, between November 2006 and February 2007 in advance of the construction of a hotel on the site of the former bowling green. The site lies in the historic core of medieval Edinburgh, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Previous evaluation at the site established that medieval archaeological deposits survived up to a depth of 2.5m below the modern
ground surface (Collard 1992; Rees, Martin and Inglis 2000).
Beneath a series of 19th-century walls excavations revealed up to 1.5m of reworked midden deposits, which had been washed down from the High Street and accumulated at the base of the slope on the Cowgate. A series of timber stakes had been driven through these deposits at varying depths. The stakes appear to have been used to provide stable footings for buildings and some of them correspond to the layout of buildings visible on the 1st Edition OS map (1849).
Cut through the lower levels of midden was a substantial ditch running from E to W, terminating just before the western edge of the site. This had been hastily backfilled before being recut on at least one occasion. It appears to represent the town ditch, previously identified in excavations to the W of the site. To the N of the ditch in the centre of the site was part of a sunken barrel, which appeared to have served as a sump. This was very well preserved with wooden barrel hoops and withies surviving.
Archive to be deposited with RCAHMS.
Funder: Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh.
Archaeological Evaluation (September 2007 - November 2007)
NT 2612 7361 Monitoring was carried out during work, September–November 2007. Several geotechnical cores
of over 5m in depth were recovered. The cores contained evidence of human activity in the form of midden type
material consisting of oyster shells and charcoal. The upper layers of the cores contained bands of mortar and building debris and sherds of medieval pottery.
A watching brief was also carried out during the excavation of a test trench to examine the foundations of the S wall of the church. This trench revealed the upper midden deposits and the deep masonry foundation piers that support the S wall of the church.
Archive: RCAHMS (intended). Report: RCAHMS
Funder: Archdiocese of Edinburgh
R Will (GUARD), 2008
