Excavations at Pluscarden Priory, Moray
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 124 (1994), 391^32, fiche 3:E1-G6 Excavations at Pluscarden Priory, Moray Finbar McCormick* with contributions by Paul Buckland, Stephen Carter, Ruby Ceron- Carrasco, Richard Fawcett, Barbara Ford, Dom Ambrose Flavell, Sheila Hamilton-Dyer, Daphne Home Lorimer, Coralie Mills, Charles Murray, Thea Gabra-Sanders PenningtoB J , n (wit MiddletonP hJ , C Nicholson & A K G Jones) & P Skidmore ABSTRACT This report, prefaced briefa by history Pluscardenof descriptiona Priory,by church,the and of describes excavations on the western side of the Priory. Features investigated include the western nave,the end seriesa of of burials, stone-lineda containingpit richa organic deposit, wallsand associated with the medieval monastic complex. The excavation was arranged and funded by Historic Scotland. INTRODUCTION The site was excavated by what was then AOC, Historic Scotland, in August and September of 199 anticipation 0i e buildinth f residentiana o f go l buildin presumee th n go e wesd th sit f to e claustral range of the monastery. The excavation was organized and financed by Historic Scotland. repore Th t begins with brief description histore foundatio e th architecturae th f th so f yf o o d nan l development of the church. OUTLIN PRE-REFORMATIOE TH F EO N HISTOR PLUSCARDEF YO N PRIORY, 1230-1560 Ambrosm Do e FlavelB OS l The Valliscaulian Order was a late expression of the eremitical ideal which swept across Europe c 1075-1200. Unlike similar ascetic movements in France at this time, such as the Grandmontines, it never enjoyed great celebrit diffusionr yo . Onl house1 MignardyP 2 A listee J sar y 19the db th , - century historian of the Order, and although Val des Choux retained its independence until 1761 there would appear to have been no new foundations after c 1255 (Folz 1959, 100). : Department of Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University, Belfast 392 SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND, 1994 three Th e Scottish houses (Pluscarden; Beauly, Inverness-shire Ardchattand an ; , Argylle ar ) very much outlier fairla f o sy close-knit group centree mother-housth n do f s VaChoueo de l x (Cote d'Or), which is situated about 20 km south-east of Chatillon-sur-Seine. Besides the Burgundian houses, there were two in Normandy, one of which served as a hospice for monks travellin r froo mo gt Scotland. Another, Remonvaux s establishewa , dc 121 Lorrainn 0i e which was then stil Germaa l n duchHole th yf y o Roma n Empire. There is a contemporary description of the early Valliscaulian monks in Chapter 17 of Jacques de Vitry's Historia Occidentalis (Folz 1959, 104). It records a visit made in 1216, when monke th s were still followin austere gth e rule drawViary b ratifie d p dnan u Popy db e InnocenI II t in 1205/6 copA . f thiyo s Bulbees ha l n preserve Chartulare th n di f Morayo connection yi n with Pluscarden (Macphail 1881, 193) but the original rule had been somewhat mitigated before the Scottish foundations, bringing the fledgeling Order more into line with Cistercian practices without altogether abandoning the Carthusian customs and ideals of their founder, Viard, who had receive s monastidhi c brothey trainin e Charterhousla th a t s a rga f Lugnyeo e resultinTh . g legislative text, knowOrdinale,e th s na gives precise detailliturgye th f so , dutie f officialso d an s customs of the Order and allows some degree of reconstruction of monastic life at Pluscarden unde Valliscauliane rth s (1230-1454). Folz (1959, 95; see also Vermeer 1954), analysing the sources of the Ordinale, has shown that the bulk of the text is drawn from the Officia Ecclesiastica (Choisselet & Vernet 1989) of Citeaux (written before 1137), modified in places by statutes taken from the Carthusian Consuetudines Guigonis c 1127( ; Guigues 1984). Ver ydocumene littlth f eo s peculiai t e th o t r Valliscaulians mose Th . t evident departure from Cistercian practice would have bee little nth e cells (probably a subdivided dormitory on the Grandmontine model: Hutchison 1989, 93, 338-9) and private gardens whic brethree hth n were fre cultivato t e e afternoonth n i e s whe t otherwisnno e engaged. This preservation of certain conspicuous elements of the Carthusian ideal, together with the small size of the community (the Bull of 1205/6 specified that no Valliscaulian house was to have more than 20 monks, including lay brothers), would have served to distinguish Pluscarden from her Cistercian neighbour at Kinloss, 10 km away to the north-west. It is surely significant that Walter Bower, Abbot of Inchcolm, should have mistaken the three Valliscaulian houses for Carthusians in his Scotichronicon of 1437 so soon after the foundation of the first, and only, Scottish Charterhous t Pertea 142n hi 9 (Beckett 1988 Bowe; xi , r 1987, vo , 275)8 l . Pluscarde royaa s lnwa foundation, taken unde protectioe th r locae th f l no bisho n 1233pi , Kine Pope th th 123n g1263n i ei d pre-127e 6an mosn th I . f o t 5conventuae th charters n o d an ,l seal house th , s generallei y referre s Vallisa o t d Sancti Andree whic s probablhwa s originayit l name before variants of the place-name Pluscarden became the norm. The dedication of all Valliscaulian monasteries was to Our Lady and St John the Baptist (Birch 1900, 94). King Alexande generousld ha I I r y endowe priore dth y with land holdingd an s s scattered alon coastae gth l strip fro Rivee mth re SpeyNes th lane forestd o th t s: dan f Pluscardeo s d nan Auchtertyre, fishing rights (for salmon) on the Spey and Findhorn; the mills of Pluscarden, Elgin, Dunkinedir, Molen, Forres and Dulpotin with their multures; the church of Dores with its lands, tithes, offering e iro rightsd th n l an stithed extracteal an ,n o s d from minee foresth f n o i ts Pluscarden. The extent of these endowments is important, as the Bull of 1205/6 had specified that the Valliscaulians were to live on their revenues. Unlike the Cistercians they did not have an army of lay brothers to bring wild places into cultivation: their monastic economy depended on rents, tithe paymentd an s kindn i s . Some indicatio relative th f no e prosperit f Pluscardeyo gives ni y nb Bagimond's Tax Roll of 1274: Beauly and Ardchattan are each set down for £200, Pluscarden for £533 (Macphail 1881,80). McCORMICK: EXCAVATION PLUSCARDET SA N PRIORY,3 MORA39 | Y There are no contemporary annals. The so-called Liber Pluscardensis is a history of Scotland (heavily dependent on Bower, 1987; and Fordun, 1871-2) written at Pluscarden in 1461 under the patronag e Abboth f f Dunfermlineeo o t mona seculaa t t e authono kbu s Th r. cleriwa r c named Maurice Buchanan, and the book contains no internal monastic sources. A history of Pluscarden befor e 15tth e h century, from documents alone, would inevitabl heavile yb y weighte recordy db s of litigation over multures (1300, 1367, 1370, 1390) and similar disputes. One of the few events on record is that the priors of Pluscarden and Beauly attended the Scottish parliament, at Birgham, on 17 March 1289/90. Tradition assign fireo t Pluscardetw sa s e 14tth ho nt century 130n i e 3 on ,whe n Edward I's army marched through Moray, and the other at the hand of Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, the Wolf of Badenoch, in 1390. That there was a major fire at some time about the late 14th or early 15th century is evident from the fabric of the church; the fact that the damage to the transepts was. never fully repaired suggests declining fortunes. Prior Thomas Fullonis resigne n 139di 8 afte year1 2 r officen i s e bisho s letteth Hi .o t rp speaks of ruling through hard times and the same document contains the decree of election of Prior Alexander (1398-c 1417) who is charged 'to repair the ruins of the church and dwelling' (Macphail 1881, 217). Evidently thi t completes no wor s kwa unioe d th for f Pluscardet no a , d nan Urquhart Priory in 1454, the Abbot of Dunfermline's delegate reported that he found Pluscarden in great need of repair; the result of almost 60 years of neglect was that the vaulted roofs of choir and crossing threatened to fall (Webster 1948, 197). e B15tyth h centur generae yth l conditio house th becomd f enha o e desperate. There were frequent disputes over the priorship, revenues were failing, and contact with France had become difficult becaus Hundree th f eo d Year r (1337-1453)Wa s undaten A . d statut exempted eha e dth Scottish houses from attending the annual General Chapter at Val des Choux (Birch 1900, 119), but we do not know what degree of contact the priory managed to maintain with its mother-house. A letter, dated 18 December 1506, from Prior-General James Courtois to the Prior of Beauly, notes that on account of the distance (1300 km - this letter took 40 days to reach Scotland) his predecessors had extended the intervals between the Prior's visits to Val des Choux from four to six years t eve t beebu , nno nthid observedha s . Courtois lameno goet n o s t thae promiseth t d consignment of Scots salmon, which should have been sent to his agent in Bruges for transmission to Dijon, had also failed to appear (Batten 1877, 157).