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Old Melrose, St Cuthbert's Chapel

Monastery (Medieval)

Site Name Old Melrose, St Cuthbert's Chapel

Classification Monastery (Medieval)

Canmore ID 55631

Site Number NT53SE 23

NGR NT 588 340

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/55631

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

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Administrative Areas

  • Council Scottish Borders, The
  • Parish Melrose
  • Former Region Borders
  • Former District Ettrick And Lauderdale
  • Former County Roxburghshire

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Old Melrose, Roxburghshire (St Cuthbert), carved fragment

Measurements: L 0.31m, W 0.25m, D 0.23m

Stone type: Old Red Sandstone

Place of discovery: NT c588340

Present location: On display at the Commendator's House, Melrose Abbey.

Evidence for discovery: the fragment was dug up by Mr Short, the gardener at Old Melrose house, sometime prior to 1894 when its existence was mentioned to Dr J Anderson of NMAS. It remained in Mr Short’s possession. The only record is that in ECMS: it was found ‘within 100 yards of the supposed site of Old Melrose Church’ (436).

Present condition: unknown.

Description

A fragment carved ‘in relief with a double spiral’ (ECMS 436).

Date: uncertain

References: ECMS pt 3, 435-6.

Compiled by A Ritchie 2016

Archaeology Notes

NT53SE 23 588 340

(NT 5886 3406) St Cuthbert's Chapel (NR) (site of)

OS 6" map (1967)

This chapel, dedicated to St Cuthbert, was built shortly after 1073; it belonged to Durham until between 1130 and 1133 when it was given to the Cistercians of Melrose by David I. To judge by the single fragment that remains, a 12th century corbel carved in the form of a grotesque face, now in the museum at Melrose Abbey, the chapel must have been a building of some importance. It was burnt by the English in or before 1321; it is mentioned again in 1437 in an indulgence granted by the Pope. However, no mention of it is made in a list of dedications to St Cuthbert attributed to John Wessyngton, prior of Durham from 1416 to 1446.

No structural remains of this chapel are visible, but foundations are reported to have been found in a flower bed skirting the SE side of the Chapel Knoll, while three graves are said to lie under the lawn E of the SE corner of Old Melrose.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 1945

The Ordnance Survey Name Book (ONB) notes that human bones have been found near this site, and near Old Melrose house. (See also NT53SE 21.)

Name Book 1859

No structural remains of this chapel survive.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 14 February 1961

The foundations of St Cuthbert's Chapel are reported by the present owner to be underneath the greenhouse of Old Melrose.

E W MacKie 1975

The site of Mailros Abbey and St Cuthbert's Chapel, Old Melrose, lies on the peninsula formed by a wide eastwards bend of the River Tweed. Nothing much is visible on the site today. There is a mound with some undressed stone protruding. The site is adjacent to the grounds of Old Melrose house. The garden wall has numerous finely-carved stones, which may originate from the chapel.

Dr B Lonie, 1997

Activities

Resistivity (September 2002)

NT 587 341

Resistivity survey.

Report deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsor: Trimontium Trust.

G Mudie, T Poller and C Rennie 2002

Magnetometry (September 2002)

NT 587 341

Gradiometry survey.

Report deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsor: Trimontium Trust.

G Mudie, T Poller and C Rennie 2002

Project (September 2002)

NT 587 341 Geophysical survey was undertaken in September 2002 close to the Scheduled site of St Cuthbert's Chapel, Old Melrose (NT 53 SE 23). The aim was to attempt to locate features relating to occupation on the promontory and investigate a number of possible features identified by dowsing by Mr Walter Elliot of the Trimontium Trust, including a possible road alignment.

Gradiometry failed to identify any features of archaeological interest, whereas the resistivity survey identified several anomalies. Several parallel, linear, high resistivity anomalies aligned NNE-SSW were interpreted as field drains. A relict field boundary, shown on the 1st edition OS map, was located. Running along the top of a ridge crossing the field W-E, a curving anomaly defined by high and low resistance readings was interpreted as the possible alignment of a road bounded by a ditch on either side. To the N of this putative road alignment and in the centre of the field, several rectangular anomalies were identified as the possible remains of structures.

Report deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsor: Trimontium Trust.

G Mudie, T Poller and C Rennie 2002

Watching Brief (23 September 2009 - 24 September 2009)

NT 58809 33967 A watching brief was undertaken 23–24 September 2009 during the excavation of a soakaway pit to the SW of a new extension to Old Melrose House. The work was required due to the proximity of the Old Melrose Monastery and St Cuthbert’s Chapel.

A single E–W-aligned wall foundation 6.8m long, 0.60m wide and 0.15m deep, of unmortared sandstone blocks, one course deep and wide and including one dressed stone block, was recorded. No finds were associated with this feature and the wall therefore remains undated. The wall foundations were immediately overlain by buried topsoil containing 19th- and 20th-century finds and redeposited natural subsoil, probably indicative of modern landscaping work. No other significant archaeological remains were recorded.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended). Report: RCAHMS and SMR

Funder: William Younger

Ronan Toolis – GUARD

Geophysical Survey (22 July 2013 - 23 October 2013)

NT 587 340 A community archaeological investigation, supervised by GUARD, was undertaken 22 July – 23 October 2013. The geophysical survey examined the area of the early medieval monastic settlement of Old Melrose and St Cuthbert's Chapel. The survey located a possible structure and associated track/road, three linear features that may be old walls or field boundaries, an old track and the remains of a 20th-century enclosure. This adds significantly to the results of previous geophysical surveys, which had located a road, an oval or elliptical enclosure and at least four old walls or field boundaries. There are now a number of archaeological features, largely of unknown date, located at Old Melrose, which may relate to the Early Christian monastery that once stood here.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended)

Funder: Melrose Historical and Archaeological Association

Christine Rennie, GUARD Archaeology Ltd, 2013

(Source: DES)

Watching Brief (8 August 2016)

NT 58809 33967 (NT53SE 23) A watching brief was carried out, 8 August 2016, during topsoil stripping for a new car park and access road around the E edge of a former gardener’s cottage and immediately S of the walled garden at Old Melrose House. Garden features, a truncated gravel surface, and a fragmentary human skull, were recorded along with 13 fragments of bone some of which may be human. Spreads of demolition debris, possibly landscaping deposits, were found along the access road to the car park

aligned E/W to the E of Old Melrose House. The work was undertaken in accordance with the conditions of scheduled monument consent and the police were informed of the discovery of the skull. The decision was made to protect the remains and to leave them in situ under a protective layer of

geotextile and sand.

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: William Younger

Alan Hunter Blair – GUARD Archaeology Ltd

(Source: DES, Volume 17)

Sbc Note (21 March 2016)

Visibility: This was the site of an archaeological monument, which may no longer be visible.

Information from Scottish Borders Council

Note (14 February 2019)

‘The Gardener’s Stone’ is described as being dug up by a gardener in about 1894 in the proximity of what was believed to be the Medieval Chapel of St. Cuthbert (in the late 19th century this became the site of greenhouses and currently it is the location of the piggery). The stone, carved with a double spiral, was recorded by an archaeologist but left in the possession of the gardener - Mr. Short - where it remained until 1903. Thereafter its location was unknown. The stone has now been identified as being on display in the Commendator's House at Melrose Abbey.

Information from the Old Melrose & Environs Archaeology Project, 14 February 2019

Watching Brief

An archaeological watching brief was carried out during topsoil stripping for a new car park and access road around the eastern edge of a former gardener’s cottage and the immediate south of the walled garden at Old Melrose House. The watching brief was required due to the proximity of the Scheduled Monument of the early medieval monastic settlement of Old Melrose and St Cuthbert’s chapel.

Garden features a truncated gravel surface and a fragmentary human skull, were recorded along with 13 fragments of bone some of which maybe human bone, in the proposed area of car parking to the immediate west of the walled garden. Spreads of demolition debris, possibly landscaping deposits, were found along the access road to the car park aligned east-west to the east of Old Melrose House. The work was undertaken in accordance with the conditions of Schedule Monument Consent. Historic Environment Scotland and the Police were informed of the discovery of the skull and the decision was made to protect the remains and to leave them in situ under a protective layer of geotextile ad sand.

Source: GUARD Archaeology (KM)

Funder: Private

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