The churchyard at Govan, a suburb of Glasgow, contains thirty-one stones that date from the ninth to the eleventh centuries and are sculpted in Celtic, English, Pictish and Norse styles. Local archaeologists have been debating the History of Govan and its stones for years, and legends suggest that what is now a suburban area was an important site in the early medieval period.
(Description taken from Tim Taylor’s – The Ultimate Time Team Companion)
Broadcast 26th January 1997
Recorded 14th – 16th June 1996
(No Time Team Web pages for this programme)
Three trenches were excavated within the burial-ground ::
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Trench 1 (NS c. 5535 6588) revealed the foundation debris of successive post-medieval churches, the remains of one or more burials of comparatively recent date, pottery (some of it from the 14th century), and unmortared stone walls of uncertain context.
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Trench 2 (NS 554 658) was comparatively large (14m long by 3m deep) and was dug outside the burial-ground (to the E) in an (abortive) attempt to find evidence beneath modern industrial debris for a ceremonial way between the church and the possible motte or moot hill of Doomster Hill (NS56NE 18).
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Trench 3 (NS c. 5538 6582) aimed the investigate the ‘pointed’ (SE) end of the burial-ground in a search for an entrance-way from the direction of Doomster Hill. Tip-lines and a layer of stone and gravel (possibly a path) were revealed as well as a ‘substantial assemblage of pottery shards’.
Other Links
The Friends of Govan Old Parish Church
Articles about Govan and its archaeology as well as a relatively complete catalogue of the sculptured stones within Govan Parish church. 3D models of some of the stones scanned by Archaeoptics will be added soon. There is also a Photograph – of the Pictish stone carved by the Time Team during the making of the programme.
Govan, Glasgow 1996
Time Team 97: The site reports (Channel 4, 1997), pages 23-29. Popular account.