The Bishop's Palace, Dunblane:Excavation and Survey

DEREK W. HALL*

SummaryRecent fieldwork at the site of the bishop's palace in Dunblane has revealedevidence which allows the full extent of the medieval complex to be appreciatedfor the first time.

'The ruins of the bishop's palace are very scanty. They stand to thesouth of the cathedral... but are not very interesting' (Lindsay 1926, 76).

IntroductionThis paper will attempt to prove that the opening quote regarding the palaceruins at Dunblane is no longer justified following the recent opportunity forlimited excavation and survey work.

In August 1994, the Scottish Urban Archaeological Trust Ltd was commis-sioned by Dunblane Kirk Session to undertake an archaeological evaluation inadvance of a proposed extension to the cathedral hall. The results of this led tofurther excavations on the site in June 1995.

When the development of the site finally started in February 1997, theTrust were commissioned by the Kirk Session to monitor all groundworks.Historic Scotland also decided to commission a survey of the standing remainsand a geophysical survey of the SW corner of the graveyard, and to support acombined publication of the results of all the recent work on the site.

Background (Fig l)Sometime in the early 7th century the Celtic saint, Blane, is said to have foundeda religious community at what was to become Dunblane, that is Blane's fort(Barty 1944, 19). The first documentary reference to Dunblane is in the 9thcentury, when the Britons of Strathclyde are said to have burnt St Blane ofKingarth's chief seat, but the presence of an early Christian settlement atDunblane is unproven (Anderson 1922, 288).

The earliest reference to a Bishop of Dunblane is in 1155 in a papal bulladdressed to the bishops of Scotland (Cockburn 1959, 6). It is not known whatthe nature of the early church at Dunblane was, although suggestions have been

* SUAT., 55 South Methven Street, Perth PHI 5NX

Scottish Archaeological Journal Vol. 22 (1) 69-

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Fig 1 Location of the Bishop's Palace and the cathedral hall, Dunblane.

made based on the architectural evidence in the tower (Hughes 1968, 71). It isnot known whether there was an earlier version of the palace. Certainly whenBishop Clement visited Dunblane in 1237 he found a partially built, rooflesschurch (Cockburn 1959, 56). He describes the state of the cathedral in a letterof 1237 to the Pope, where he says that '.

. .

it stands bare and roofless, with a

single rustic chaplain' (Leicester Addis 1901, 67). Clement is thought to havetaken down the unfinished church, apart from the tower, and then built hiscathedral at a slightly different angle due to the presence of boggy ground tothe NE (Cockburn 1959, 56). It is at this point that the palace may have beenbuilt, or at least one version of it.

It would appear that the palace became derelict after the Reformation, andsometime following 1559 its ruins became a convenient quarry for building

The Bishop's Palace, Dunblane: Excavations and Survey 71

stone. The engraving of Dunblane in Theatrum Scotiae made by John Slezer atthe end of the seventeenth century show substantial ruins standing to gableheight adjacent to the cathedral (1693, plate 26). This is approximately on thesite of the present cathedral hall. However, by 1863 when the first OrdnanceSurvey map was produced, the N range of the palace had been levelled.

During the construction of the Cathedral Hall in 1903, part of a stone vaultwas exposed, which is described as being cl5 feet (4.6m) wide and 90 feet(27.4m) long, and constructed of red sandstone. At least one other vault hasbeen discovered during grave digging, 18 feet (5.5m) to the N of the graveyardwall. The side of this vault closest to the cathedral had apparently beenremoved in antiquity (Robertson 1904, 131). There was also a small excavationof part of the Bishop's Palace ruins in 1966 by a local schoolteacher. TheCathedral Museum has a 16th-century jug on display from this excavation, butthere do not appear to be any surviving records.

WallsVaults

Fig 2 Plan of the excavations and the Bishop's Palace.

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Fig 3 View of excavations in progress from the tower of the cathedral.

Archaeological Evaluation and Survey (Fig 2)The two evaluation excavations of August 1994 and June 1995 located sub-stantial building remains on the proposed development site (Hall 1995). Twoseparate vault foundations were located in the main excavation trench, runningE-W (Fig 3). A N-S wall may represent an internal subdivision in the buildingwith the two vaults butted against its E and W sides. The foundations of bothvaults were built against the S face of a mortar bonded sandstone wall c2mthick (Fig 2, Trench A). The fragment of vault discovered on the E side of thewall is probably the continuation of the vault discovered under the cathedralhall in 1903 (Fig 4). The second vault on the W side of the internal subdivisionhad been badly robbed for most of its length. One of the trenches in the initialevaluation ofAugust 1994 located the remains of a flagged stone surface elmbelow modern ground level, probably representing a courtyard which lay out-side the building (Fig 2, Trench B).

The standing building survey (Figs 5 and 6) confirmed the existence of astair tower at the N end of the ruins where they meet the close. This was iden-tified in 1904 as being 'halfway across the footpath, but is now covered up withashes . . .'(Robertson 1903-04, 132). The survey also located a fragment ofwall on the S side of the S stair tower running E to W, which may represent theN wall of a S range to the palace. There are references to another vault running'under the coach house at The Cross belonging to the Manse' (Barty 1944, 43)

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Fig 4 Detail of wall exposed behind Cathedral Hall from the E.

and this may suggest another block of buildings to the E, thus giving a set ofbuildings around a courtyard. The measured survey of the surviving ruins indi-cates that they stop abruptly against the property boundary of the manse

grounds, but may once have continued further S.The watching brief on the groundworks in February 1997 located the

continuation of the yard surface previously discovered in Trench A of the eval-uation. This surface was located at a depth of c0.6m below the tarmac of theBishop's Close (Fig 2), and extended right up to the edge of the fence aroundthe standing palace remains. It seems fair to assume that this yard runs right up

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Fig 7 Geophysical Survey plot.

to the surviving ruins. The excavation of a new service trench adjacent to thecathedral graveyard wall located a vault fragment directly beneath that wall(Fig 2). This fragment survived c0.5m higher than the other excavated vaultsand ran from NNW to SSE, a completely different alignment. It is possible thatthis fragment relates to the vault discovered in the graveyard in 1904.

In the cathedral graveyard, over the wall from the site of the development,there is an earthwork platform with edges running NE and then swinging roundto run SE (Fig 2). It was initially thought that this might represent the N sideof the demolished palace's main block located by the evaluation, but thealignment is different. This alignment is also reflected in the results of theresistivity survey of the area (Fig 7), although this is confused by the presenceof burials and floodlight fittings. Following the watching brief, it now seems

likely that this earthwork indicates the location of a demolished vaulted build-ing (Fig 2), possibly part of an earlier version of the palace. This possibility isdiscussed below.

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Post-Reformation descriptions and illustrationsIt is assumed that following the Reformation the Bishop's Palace gradually fellinto disrepair. A document dated to 1579 records the feuing of the 'great buildingcommonly called the Lodge, girnells [granaries or storehouses] and stables' tothe Rector ofAberfoyle by the Bishop of Dunblane, and a charter of confirma-tion of this document refers to the 'Bishop's waste edifice or fore dwellinghouse' (Barty 1944, 72). Richard Franck, a military engineer, writing in 1656noted 'But a palace there is, and a cathedral too, otherwise Dumblain hadnothing to boast of (Cockburn 1948, 67).

Slezer's illustrations of 1688 show substantial remains of the palace stillstanding, although it is wrongly located to the N of the cathedral (1693, plate27). This latter fault appears to be the result of separate drawings being mis-takenly joined together by the engraver, and this becomes more apparent whenthe horizon on this drawing is examined and it is seen that it does not run at thesame level right across the illustration (Fig 8).

Bishop Pococke's tours of Scotland in the 18th century included a visit toDunblane in 1760, when he records that 'the Bishop's house, the ruins of whichare [still] seen, . . . was demolished by undermining, it extended all the way

Fig 8 Detail of Slezer's view of Dunblane cathedral and Bishop's Palace, courtesyof Glasgow University Library, Department of Special Collections.

78 DEREK W. HALL

down to the end of the [Leighton] library. .

.' (Kemp 1887, 292). The entry inthe first Statistical Account written in 1791-92 refers to 'the cathedral, and theruins of the Bishop's Palace' as 'the only antiquities in this parish' (Withringtonand Grant 1976, Vol 12 310). A sketch by Joseph Farington dated to 1792 mayshow a standing fragment of the W gable end of the main block of the Palace.Certainly by the time of a line drawing by Hugh Grecian Williams dating frombetween 1800 and 1810 there were no ruins visible, apart from the vaultedblock that survives today. (The drawing may be seen in the Cathedral Museum).

It would therefore appear that the main part of the palace finally disap-peared between 1792 and 1800/10, and this probably indicates the use of theruins as a convenient stone quarry by the locals during the erection of newbuildings in the town. This process is probably the 'undermining' referred toby Bishop Pococke. In the 1840s a small house was built on top of part of thesurviving ruins and its fireplace and chimney stack are still visible todaystanding above the central vault (Fig 5).

Reconstruction (Figs 9 and 10)The reconstructed ground plan is based on a combination of the archaeologicalevidence, a measured survey of the standing remains, references to discoveriesduring both the construction of the cathedral hall and gravedigging in the cathe-dral graveyard, and 18th-century descriptions of the surviving ruins. The threedimensional reconstruction is based on the same information as the groundplan. The building's external appearance is based upon Slezer's view of 1688.

Conclusions

Topography undoubtedly played a large part in the positioning of the Bishop'sPalace. It helps to explain the 30 degree angle of the surviving remains to thepostulated course of the missing main block, as they have been built directly atthe top of a steep drop that runs SE. The vault fragment discovered in thewatching brief runs at an even more acute angle to the remains (Fig 2). It seemslikely that the view which the site would provide over the Allan Water alsoinfluenced the selection of the site.

From the results of the archaeological evaluation and the reports of dis-coveries earlier this century it now appears that the surviving ruins representonly a very small part of what was at one time a substantial complex of build-ings. Indeed it seems likely that the Palace complex originally comprised fourranges standing around a central courtyard, as suggested in Figure 9. Thislayout is commonly seen in Bishops' palaces such as Wolvesey in Winchester(Beaumont James 1994, 47), and would seem to match the number of buildingssuggested in the feu confirmation of 1579.

The most recent discovery of the vault fragment below the graveyard wallhas added to the complexity of the original layout of the palace. This is partic-ularly true as it was clear during monitoring that this vault had been cut throughby the wall and vault line located in the main evaluation. It is possible that thisvault indicates the original alignment of an earlier palace on this site. It is not

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Fig 9 Reconstruction of the ground plan of the Bishop's Palace, Dunblane.

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Fig 10 Reconstruction sketch of the Bishop's Palace, Dunblane from the S.

clear whether a palace existed before Bishop Clement (1233-58) was elected,but this newly discovered vault fragment may suggest that one did, and wasreplaced by him at the same time that he built his cathedral.

It is of great importance that every opportunity is taken confirm or deny thisproposed reconstruction. It certainly suggests that any development proposalsin the grounds of the cathedral manse or the gardens of the cathedral cottagesneed to be carefully monitored.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Lorna Main (Stirling Council) and Dr RichardFawcett (Historic Scotland) for their help during this project. Alec Wilson ofDunblane Kirk Session and John Lindsay of the Cathedral Museum providedaccess to illustrations and advice. Russel Coleman, Simon Stronach and DerekShepherd contributed valuable efforts during the excavations. John Wright ofJ. B. Bennet Ltd was both helpful and interested during the watching brief.

The archaeological assessments and watching brief on the Cathedral Halldevelopment were funded by the Kirk Session and Central Regional Council(now Stirling Council). The preparation of this report for publication was

funded by Historic Scotland. The illustrations are by Dave Munro.

The Bishop's Palace, Dunblane: Excavations and Survey 81

Bibliography

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This paper is published with the aid of a grant from Historic Scotland.