KINFAUNS OLD PARISH CHURCH - Report on Test pit evaluation

A programme of archaeological work was undertaken at Kinfauns Old Parish Church, near Perth. The work was carried out to inform and mitigate proposed consolidation and repair works, and comprised a desk based assessment, historic building recording and a test pit evaluation. The desk based assessment identified four main phases: the establishment of a dependant chapel to Scone Abbey at Kinfauns in the 12th century; the achievement of parochial status and the construction of the core of the extant building in the 15th century; substantial modification post-reformation; and finally continued use and some further modifications until abandonment the mid-19th century. The building recording detected elements of three phases of the building dating to the 15th, 16th and 17th- 19th century identified during the desk based assessment. The test pit evaluation established that the floor had been removed leaving a layer mortar and stone rubble. This had subsequently been covered by dumped deposits possibly excess soil from the digging of graves in the graveyard to the west of the church. A flush wall face exposed below the floor level in test pits at the east end of the church may indicate that there might have been a burial crypt at this end that later has been infilled. The crypt below the floor in the burial aisle to the south, has a barrel vault. It contains a lead coffin inside an outer wooden coffin set into a sub-rectangular shaft built into the crypt floor.