Dunfermline, East Port, St Margaret's Roman Catholic Church

Photographs of buildings in Dunfermline, Fife, by the Scottish National Buildings Record in 1955.

In a follow-up to the geophysical survey previously undertaken (DES 2001, 69-70), two trial trenches were excavated in April 2003 in a gap between the planted garden area to the W of the 19th-century courtyard wall at the rear of the castle. What appeared to be natural subsoil, a reddy-orange clay, was located 1.2m below the surface. Although the depth reached was limited, there was no clear evidence for the infilled castle ditch at this point, and it either lies closer to the castle or further W. Worked sandstone blocks may have derived from the medieval castle, but the ground was levelled in the 19th century and the area used as tennis courts. The finds from both trenches reflect this and include much 19th and 20th-century material, although there are a few sherds of medieval green-glazed oxidised ware.