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Portmoak Farm

Burial Ground (Period Unassigned), Chapel (Period Unassigned), Field Drain(S) (Period Unassigned), Rig And Furrow (Period Unassigned), Road (Period Unassigned)(Possible), Vallum (Period Unassigned)(Possible)

Site Name Portmoak Farm

Classification Burial Ground (Period Unassigned), Chapel (Period Unassigned), Field Drain(S) (Period Unassigned), Rig And Furrow (Period Unassigned), Road (Period Unassigned)(Possible), Vallum (Period Unassigned)(Possible)

Alternative Name(s) Portmoak, Monastery Of St Serf

Canmore ID 27873

Site Number NO10SE 4

NGR NO 1735 0087

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/27873

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Perth And Kinross
  • Parish Portmoak (Perth And Kinross)
  • Former Region Tayside
  • Former District Perth And Kinross
  • Former County Kinross-shire

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Portmoak, Kinross-shire, cross-slab

Measurements: H 0.67m, W 0.38m, D 0.10m

Stone type:

Place of discovery: NO 1735 0087

Evidence for discovery: found in the 1970s on the chapel site at Portmoak.

Present location: within Portmoak Parish Church (ID 240845).

Present condition: very weathered and parts of the lower section of the slab are missing.

Description:

This is an upright grave-marker, carved in relief on one broad face. Within a plain flat-band border, there is a cross with rectangular terminals to the arms and small circular armpits, outlined by a broad roll moulding. The centre of the cross-head is marked by a small boss and the cross is filled with continuous interlace. The carving is severely worn, but there appear to have been figural panels on either side of the upper arm of the cross, as well as ornament to the right of the shaft (the panel on the left is missing).

Date range: early medieval.

Primary references:

Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2019

Activities

Field Visit (30 April 1972)

No trace of any structure.

Visited by OS (RD) 30 April 1972.

Field Walking (1976)

NO 173008. Levelling operations revealed the remains of two corn drying kilns lying immediately N of the old graveyard and chapel site at Portmoak farmsteading. The stonework of one of the kilns suggests the use of material from the chapel which was demolished about 1660. This kiln has been rebuilt close to the graveyard.

In the same area many fragments of pottery were brought to the surface and a search of surrounding ploughed fields resulted in the collection of over 1000 sherds. These have been compared with other mediaeval pottery from the Fife area indicating that the majority of finds at Portmoak date from the 13th century.

During restoration of the graveyard and chapel site a cross-slab was discovered measuring 0.67 x 0.38 x O.lm. The shape of the cross and the continous interlacing covering it can both be matched in 10th and llth century examples at St. Andrews Cathedral, although the elements are not combined in exactly the same way.

D M Munro 1976

Resistivity (9 July 2009)

NO 1735 0087 Exploratory resistivity and magnetic gradiometer surveys were carried out in the old burial

ground on 9 July 2009. No significant archaeological features were found except a roughly rectangular area of low resistivity which could represent the site of the old chapel, now demolished. This work was carried out with members of the Portmoak community.

Archive: Perth and Kinross SMR

Funder: Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust

P Morris and S Timoney – Blairgowrie Geoscience / Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust

Magnetometry (9 July 2009)

NO 1735 0087 Exploratory resistivity and magnetic gradiometer surveys were carried out in the old burial

ground on 9 July 2009. No significant archaeological features were found except a roughly rectangular area of low resistivity which could represent the site of the old chapel, now demolished. This work was carried out with members of the Portmoak community.

Archive: Perth and Kinross SMR

Funder: Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust

P Morris and S Timoney – Blairgowrie Geoscience / Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust

Resistivity (12 April 2010)

NO 1735 0087 The resistivity survey over the site was

extended on 12 April 2010 to cover most of the accessible

area of the old burial ground, excluding those portions

once used as a rubbish dump. The line of the former N

and E walls are marked by areas of high resistivity but no

significant new archaeological features were found.

Archive: Perth and Kinross SMR (intended)

Funder: Portmoak Priory Group

Project (February 2017 - July 2017)

NO 17362 00927 (NO10SE 4) A geophysical survey and trial trench excavation was commissioned by Kinross Museum near the site of Old Portmoak parish church as part of a community archaeology programme for the Our Portmoak Project. The survey undertaken, February–July 2017, was located to investigate the church site’s environs where medieval pottery and a corn drying kiln were discovered in 1976. A Sensys 16-sensor Magneto vehicle-towed magnetometer rig was utilised for the survey with a dedicated GPS. The results mapped the outline of a possible large curvilinear ditch, the former shoreline of Loch Leven, field drains, rig and furrow, a possible old road and other areas of magnetic disturbance. Excavation of a slot across the enclosure revealed a ditch overlain by plough scars containing medieval pottery sherds. The ditch could be remains of a vallum around the nearby church site. Further detailed post-excavation study and radiocarbon dating will help to clarify these findings.

Archive: Kinross (Marshall) Museum, NRHE and PKHT (intended)

Funder: Heritage Lottery Fund and Historic Environment Scotland

Oliver O’Grady – OJT Heritage

(Source: DES, Volume 18)

Magnetometry (February 2017 - July 2017)

NO 17362 00927 (NO10SE 4) Magnetometry survey.

Archive: Kinross (Marshall) Museum, NRHE and PKHT (intended)

Funder: Heritage Lottery Fund and Historic Environment Scotland

Oliver O’Grady – OJT Heritage

(Source: DES, Volume 18)

Desk Based Assessment

NO10SE 4 1735 0087

(NO 1735 0087) Monastery (NR) (Site of)

OS 6" map (1920).

Chapel (NR) (Site of)

OS 6" map (1959).

See also NO10SE 21 and NO10SE 22.

A small chapel and burying-ground existed at Portmoak in connection with the monastery of St Serf (Culdee and Augustinian) (NO10SE 3). The chapel has been entirely taken down and all but three of the monuments removed to the modern burying-ground.

A Kerr 1882.

The island of St Serf, Portmoak on Loch Leven was originally the site of a Culdee settlement until David I granted the island to the canons of St Andrews c.1150 and it is called the priory of St Serfs in Loch Leven as late as August 1562 but it is evidently identical with the priory of Portmoak; there is reference to a prior of St Serfs in Loch Leven or Portmoak on 9th Oct 1544 and the priory is frequently described as of Portmoak in the 15th and 16th centuries. The use of this designation may mean that the canons ultimately resided there rather than on the island.

D E Easson 1957

(Location cited as NO 173 008). Portmoak Farm: corn drying kilns, pottery and cross-slab. During restoration of the graveyard and chapel site a cross-slab was discovered measuring 0.67 x 0.38 x 0.1m. The shape of the cross and the continuous interlacing covering it can both be matched in 10th and 11th century examples at St Andrews Cathedral, although the elements are not combined in exactly the same way.

[Present location of cross-slab not stated].

D M Munro 1976.

Information from OS.

References

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