EHG5125 - Excavation - Lemlair parish church

In 1998 AOC Archaeology Group were commissioned by Historic Scotland to carry out an excavation on the elements of the ruins of Lemlair Church and graveyard at risk from erosion over the next couple of decades. The interior of the chapel proved to be very rich in skeletal material while the graves along the shoreline could only be identified at significant depth. Consequently only the area along the eroding edge of the Firth and the eastern end of the interior of the chapel were fully excavated. This recovered information on a sequence of 50 graves. The fabric of the chapel was also exposed, recorded and the very eastern limit of the chapel excavated. Pottery recovered from the site indicated activity during the 12th to 15th centuries, while metalwork from the graves demonstrated activity from the C16 to the C18. Seven radiometric dates from skeletal material support C17 to C19 dates for burials. The surviving chapel fabric relates principally to the renewal of the structure in the 17th century as a mausoleum for the Munros of Foulis. <1> The excavation assemblage was submitted to Treasure Trove (TT 96/06) and allocated to Inverness Museum. The human remains were reburied at the main parish cemetery of Kiltearn in 2013. <2> <3>