SAIR 1:Dundrennan Abbey: archaeological investigation within the south range of a Cistercian house in Kirkcudbrightshire (Dumfries & Galloway), Scotland

by Gordon Ewart

with contributions by S Carter, R Céron Carrasco, N Crowley, A Dunn, H Kenward, C Mills, T O'Sullivan, A Radley, D Rankin, B Will and GeoQuest Associates, and illustrations by D Connolly

ISBN 0-903903-70-9

Published in March 2003 by The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, in association with The Council for British Archaeology and Historic Scotland, in Adobe Acrobat format. Available free of charge (see Terms & Conditions of Use)

Report Summary

The remains of the south-west corner of the 12th-century Cistercian abbey cloister at Dundrennan (National Grid Reference: NX 7492 4750) were cleared of rubble and 19th-century landscaping infill over four seasons of fieldwork in the early 1990s. Elements of the warming house, novice's day room, great drain and latrine block undercroft were revealed. Coupled with a short programme of geophysical survey and test-trenching, new evidence of the sequence of building for the abbey was revealed by excavation. The project was funded by Historic Scotland.

A synthesis of the report, as published in the Transactions of the Dumfriesshire & Galloway Natural History & Antiquarian Society, volume 85, 2001, 159-71,  is available as an HTML file.

Download the entire report as a single PDF file (c 4Mb) - you will need the Adobe Acrobat software (version 4) to open this file (on a PC the easiest way to download the file is to click the right hand button on your mouse when the mouse pointer is over the above link and then use the 'Save Target As..' option to save the file to your local hard disk before opening it using the Adobe software).

Report Contents

(each section can be downloaded as a separate PDF file by clicking on the section title)

	Title Page
	Table of Contents
	List of Illustrations
	List of Tables
1	Summary
2	Introduction	Gordon Ewart
3	Historical context	Gordon Ewart
4	Archaeological stratigraphy	Gordon Ewart
5	Geophysics and trial trenches	Gordon Ewart with GeoQuest
6	Ceramics	Alan Radley and Bob Will
7	Small finds	Andrew Dunn
8	Window glass	Andrew Dunn
9	Architectural fragments	Andrew Dunn
10	Mortar and plaster	Naomi Crowley
11	Plant remains	Dorothy Rankin
12	Mammals and birds	Tanya O’Sullivan
13	Fish and crustaceans	Ruby Céron Carrasco
14	Molluscs	Stephen Carter
15	Insects	Harry Kenward
16	Burnt fuel remains	Ruby Céron Carrasco & Coralie Mills
17	General discussion	Gordon Ewart
18	Acknowledgements	Gordon Ewart
19	Bibliography
20	Index