{"id":348,"date":"2019-07-23T12:51:49","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T12:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/guard-archaeology.co.uk\/wordpress1\/?p=348"},"modified":"2019-07-23T12:51:49","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T12:51:49","slug":"paisley-abbeys-great-drain-unearthed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/?p=348","title":{"rendered":"Paisley Abbey’s Great Drain Unearthed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Centuries-old mystery of Paisley Abbey medieval tunnel is\nrevealed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We already knew Scotland\u2019s finest and best-preserved\nmedieval tunnel lies buried beneath Paisley town centre \u2013 but the centuries-old\nmystery of where it ended had never been solved\u2026until now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A team of volunteers led by GUARD Archaeologists spent the summer excavating Paisley Abbey’s Drain and found a well-preserved fourteenth century stone archway marking the exact point the drain and its contents once flowed into the River Cart. They established the tunnel \u2013 believed to be around 100m long \u2013 ends around 3m from the banks of the present-day river, which would have been wider and shallower at the time the drain was built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while the find is now being covered up again, the\ndiscovery could help lead to a more permanent visitor attraction being built in\nthe future allowing people to go inside the drain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Excavation leader Bob Will said, ‘We found more than I was expecting and it is really exciting. We found the end of the drain and what was the boundary wall of the monastery. The river was wider and shallower in those days \u2013 much more than in the last couple of hundred years, as the walls now surrounding it are artificial. The main parts of the drain date back to the mid-fourteenth century and are incredibly well preserved.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Abbey Drain had lain hidden for centuries until it was unexpectedly rediscovered in the nineteenth century, and in recent years, it has been periodically opened up for visitors. There will be an opportunity for the public to put their names forward for a ballot to go inside it during this year\u2019s Doors Open Day in September. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Bob believes the finds of the past few weeks could help the development of a more permanent attraction opening up a greater degree of public access to the drain. He said: ‘What we have uncovered has helped us see what could be done with any future excavation. We now know much more about the mediaeval ground levels and have a good idea where some of the monastery buildings were. Ideally there would be more permanent access to the drain at some point in the future and what we\u2019ve uncovered here makes that much more feasible.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Renfrewshire Council leader Iain Nicolson added: ‘Paisley is already on the map as a key visitor destination within Scotland and we are already delivering on ambitious plans to use our unique heritage to drive new footfall to the town centre. We would be keen to explore any opportunities to build on that by opening up more permanent access to the Abbey Drain at some point in the future \u2013 and the findings of the Big Dig mean we now know more than ever about this incredible feature beneath the town centre. The Big Dig was a really great community project which has created a lot of interest in Paisley town centre and its history over the past couple of months. We would like to thank our funders for helping make it happen, and all who have been involved in the projects \u2013 particularly the local volunteers who came out in all weathers to take part.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The eight-week Abbey Drain Big Dig was co-ordinated by Renfrewshire Council and led by GUARD Archaeology Ltd, with funding from National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic Environment Scotland. It also saw a strong community element, with volunteers from Renfrewshire Local History Forum taking part in the dig, students from the University of the West of Scotland filming it, and a series of events and seminars for residents and visitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Centuries-old mystery of Paisley Abbey medieval tunnel is revealed We already knew Scotland\u2019s finest and best-preserved medieval tunnel lies buried beneath Paisley town centre \u2013 but the centuries-old mystery of where it ended had never been solved\u2026until now. A team of volunteers led by GUARD Archaeologists spent the summer excavating Paisley Abbey’s Drain and found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2019-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":353,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions\/353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}