Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Edinburgh, Newhaven, Main Street, Westmost Close, Chapel Of St Mary And St James

Chapel (16th Century)

Site Name Edinburgh, Newhaven, Main Street, Westmost Close, Chapel Of St Mary And St James

Classification Chapel (16th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Newhaven Harbour

Canmore ID 51929

Site Number NT27NE 14

NGR NT 25479 77037

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/51929

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

Toggle Aerial | View on large map

Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Edinburgh, City Of
  • Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District City Of Edinburgh
  • Former County Midlothian

Archaeology Notes

NT27NE 14 25479 77037

(NT 2548 7704) Site of St James's Chapel (NR)

OS 6" map, Edinburghshire, 1st ed., (1852)

The site of this chapel, which was dedicated to St Mary and St James (ONB 1852; RCAHMS 1951) is in a burial ground in Newhaven Main Street. It was being constructed in 1505. A rubble gable on the E side of Westmost Close is pointed out as the last vestige of this chapel; it contains a built-up 17th century window, domestic rather than ecclesiastical in character (RCAHMS 1951).

Excavations in the burial ground in April 1972 revealed the foundations of a rectangular building, 19.2m E-W x 6.4m N-S, within 0.68m thick walls. A coin of Charles I and a quantity of glazed late medieval pottery were found.

Name Book 1852; RCAHMS 1951; J C Wallace 1972.

All that remains of this chapel is the rubble gable at NT 2548 7704.

The site of the 1972 excavations now lie beneath modern development at NT 2548 7703.

The remains of the burial ground are now centred at NT 2549 7703.

Visited by OS (B S) 26 November 1975.

Excavations took place here in 1972 when development of the site took place. There are now no visible remains of the chapel.

Site recorded by GUARD during the Coastal Assessment Survey for Historic Scotland, 'The Firth of Forth from Dunbar to the Coast of Fife' 23rd February 1996.

Activities

Publication Account (1951)

221. Chapel of SS. Mary and James, Westmost Close, Newhaven.

A rubble gable on the E. side of the Close is pointed out as the last vestige of this chapel, which was in process of construction in 1505. The gable in question contains a built-up window of the 17th century, which is domestic rather than ecclesiastical in character. The adjoining open space, facing Main Street, is the graveyard that was latterly attached to the chapel.

RCAHMS 1951, visited c.1941

Publication Account (1981)

A rubble gable at NT 2548 7795 is all that remains of the chapel dedicated to Saints Mary and James in Newhaven (Ordnance Survey Record Cards, Reference NT 27 NE 14).

Information from ‘Historic Edinburgh, Canongate and Leith: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1981).

References

MyCanmore Image Contributions


Contribute an Image

MyCanmore Text Contributions