Description

The monument consists of the excavated footings of the conventual buildings of the Observanat Franciscan Friary and of the adjoining parts of the church.

The friary was founded at a date before 1505, and may have been defunct before the Reformation, having been badly damaged in the English attacks of 1544 and 1545, and possibly earlier in that of 1523. The site was excavated in 1983-85 and 1991-92, and the lower walls of the greater part of the conventual buildings have been laid out within a formal garden, with other known elements marked out in the ground surface of the Lothian and Borders Cooperative Society's car park.

Being a late foundation on a peripheral burgh site, the buildings could not be correctly orientated, being laid out instead on a south-east to north west axis, with the conventual buildings to the north-east of the church, presumably on the side away from the street. The evidence, which is the most complete of any of the Scottish mendicant houses so far investigated, indicated that the conventual buildings were laid out to the standard monastic plan, with three ranges around a square cloister garth and the church on the fourth side.

The footings of arcade walls enclosing walks were found around three sides of the cloister, and it seems from what can be understood of the plan that the chapter house and refectory were in the customary positions.

The area to be scheduled is marked in red on the accompanying map extract, and measures a maximum of 42m from the westernmost to the easternmost point, and 43m from the northwesternmost to the southernmost point.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as the most extensively investigated, and most completely displayed remains of the claustral buildings of a medieval friary in Scotland.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NT 62 SE 17.

References:

Cowan, I. B. and Easson, D. E. (1976) 'Medieval religious houses, Scotland: with and appendix on the houses in the Isle of Man', London, 132.

Dixon, P., O'Sullivan, J. and Rogers, I. (2000) 'Archaeological Excavations at Jedburgh Friary'.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland