1984–91 Whithorn Trust excavations

In 1984, plans were drawn up to redevelop land to the south of the priory as sheltered housing.

Since excavations in the 1970s had shown a high level of surviving archaeology in this area, archaeologists were called in to help decide whether or not the building work could go ahead.

Results from the first summer’s work, which unearthed remains from the fifth through to the eighteenth centuries, demonstrated that the site required further investigation. With another location found and approved for the sheltered housing scheme, excavation work resumed in 1986.


Between 1986 and 1991, excavations revealed a densely populated medieval graveyard in the northern part of the Glebe Field.

Beneath it lay much earlier remains, some dating from the earliest settlement on the site, including traces of fifth century occupation.

Archaeologists were able to piece together a sequence spanning 1,500 years of occupation, worship and burial. This included:

• sixth and seventh century graves
• part of the eighth century Northumbrian monastery
• traces of a tenth century Viking settlement
• an extensive thirteenth – fifteenth century graveyard.