Scheduled Monument
Luffness FriarySM759
Status: Designated
Documents
Where documents include maps, the use of this data is subject to terms and conditions (https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/termsandconditions).
The legal document available for download below constitutes the formal designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The additional details provided on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not form part of the designation. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within this additional information.
Summary
- Date Added
- 18/05/1936
- Last Date Amended
- 14/02/2002
- Supplementary Information Updated
- 20/07/2021
- Type
- Ecclesiastical: convent
- Local Authority
- East Lothian
- Planning Authority
- East Lothian
- Parish
- Aberlady
- NGR
- NT 47129 80193
- Coordinates
- 347129, 680193
Description
The monument comprises the remains of Luffness Convent. The monument was first scheduled in 1936 and did not include structures and features to the north; this rescheduling rectifies this omission.
The monument lies in a wooded area at around 5m OD. It comprises the remains of a Carmelite Friary. It is first mentioned in 1335-6 but may have been founded in the previous century. No references to it have been found after 1512, but lands formerly belonging to it were leased by the crown in 1609. The foundations of the church can be clearly discerned but the associated buildings are hardly visible on the surface. The church measures some 31m by about 8m; its walls are on average about 0.7m wide and about 0.7m high except at the E end on the N side, where the wall is approximately 1.7m high. At this location there is a recess containing an effigy of a knight in late 13th century armour. The position is that normal for a founder's tomb. The effigy suggests that the friary was founded several decades before it first appears on record.
About 80m NE of the church (NT 4718 8025) are the remains of 2 fishponds, consisting of two waterlogged hollows overgrown with weeds. They have a maximum depth of about 1.5m. About 100m E of the fishponds (NT 4730 8026) is a fragment of building, now incorporated into a boundary wall. The fragment consists of the NW angle of a building, the N side being about 0.5m long, the W side about 3m long, and standing about 3.5m high. There are two blocked-up slit windows in the N wall.
The area to be scheduled encompasses the visible remains and an area around them in which traces of associated material may be expected to survive. It is sub-square with maximum dimensions of 190m NNW-SSE and 200m due E-W, as marked in red on the accompanying map.
References
Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation
About Scheduled Monuments
Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.
We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.
Scheduling is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for monuments and archaeological sites of national importance as set out in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
We schedule sites and monuments that are found to be of national importance using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)
Scheduled monument records provide an indication of the national importance of the
scheduled monument which has been identified by the description and map. The description and map (see ‘legal documents’ above) showing the scheduled area is the designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The statement of national importance and additional information provided are supplementary and provided for general information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within the statement of national importance or additional information. These records are not definitive historical or archaeological accounts or a complete description of the monument(s).
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