Peeblesshire News | News | Human remains discovered beneath church

Thursday, 4th December, 2008

Published: Friday, 3rd October, 2008 12:30

Human remains discovered beneath church

By David O'Leary

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A MEDIEVAL mystery has been unearthed at Traquair Kirk after the discovery of human bones.

The macabre discovery was found after the church floor was removed due to rot.

And it was to the horror of construction workers that the gruesome find was revealed.

However it has been revealed that there is no modern day skullduggery afoot after a local archaeologist confirmed them to be very old, probably medieval.

The present kirk was completed two hundred and thirty years ago in 1778 and it has been closed over the summer for repairs and renovation.

The Reverend Janice Faris was hoping that the work would not offer up anything and the parish minister wasn’t too surprised at the find.

She said: “I had my fingers crossed that we wouldn’t find anything because this happens a lot with these old churches.

“The present kirk was built on the site of a former church and who knows how the bones came to be where they were.

“They were found in rubble beneath the floor so they must have been placed there when the previous rebuilding work took place.

“Burial within churches ceased at the time of the Reformation in 1560 so they’ve been there a long time.”

After the initial discovery the police were contacted and they in turn contacted Scottish Borders Council who sent archaeologist John Dent to examine the bones.

John said: “I found fragments of more than one body, two skulls and two upper arm bones. I also found evidence of a young adolescent.

“I found nothing unusual about the bones and would be fairly sure that they died a natural death.

“To carbon date the bones would be too expensive a process but by clear historical and academic research one can easily be sure that they date from before the Reformation.

“You always expect to find bones buried under the floor of any old churches because this was the practice at the time.”

The kirk reopened after the renovation work with a communion service last Sunday during which the William Cree Memorial Window was relocated to its new home in the kirk vestry.

Reverend Faris now plans to re-inter the bones in a Christian burial in the kirkyard.

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