Dig uncovering the history of Blackfriars Monastery
Historians and archaeologists have been working around the clock to try to find out more about the Blackfriars monastery – which stood where newly-renamed The King James pub sits – and about the death of King James I of Scotland (1406-1437).
The medieval Dominican friary known as Blackfriars was founded in 1231 by King Alexander II of Scotland, who introduced the Dominican Order to the country.
Blackfriars, as the Dominican friary, was the first of four religious orders to be set up in medieval Perth, along with the Carmelites, Carthusians and the Franciscans.
The friary lay on ground outside of the city walls on the former royal gardens of Perth Castle - Perth Castle was destroyed years earlier because of persistent flooding from the River Tay, which its timber and earth frame could not withstand.
Once King James I came to rule Scotland after years kept as a political prisoner in the Tower of London, he was determined to make Perth the focal point of the country, and set up the then parliament and his royal residency in Blackfriars monastery.
This shot the Dominican friary into the history books, becoming a regular meeting point for the leaders of 15th century Scotland. However, this only lasted until February 21 1437, when King James I was violently murdered by discontented nobles in the friary’s sewers, despite vain attempts to escape to freedom.
King James I and later his wife Joan Beaufort were then both buried in Perth’s Carthusian Priory, known as the Charterhouse, although experts are still unsure of their exact resting place.
The doomed friary was destined to not outlive its heyday of the medieval period however, and it was burned to the ground during the Reformation of 1559.
A spokesperson for Scotland’s Urban Past, who has been working to excavate the pub, said: James I of Scotland
“There is now little if anything remaining of these religious houses as they have all been demolished, their destruction beginning with mob actions spurred by John Knox’s passionate sermon condemning idolatry on May 11, 1559.
“Archaeological excavations carried out during the 1980s found evidence of friary buildings close by as well as part of the monastic cemetery but these are now lost to modern building development.”