Roof tile fragments from the Isle of May

Through the kindness of Mr R Allan, one of the lighthouse keepers on the Isle of May (NO 659991), a number of fragments of rectangular, flat glazed and unglazed roof tiles have been made available for examination.They were recovered from within the ruined chapel building and from rabbit burrowings approximately 40 metres to the SE of the building which is probably part of a medieval kitchen midden (RCAMS 1933, 15-6).Those retrieved from the building were found lying loose in the oven at the S end or had been used as pinning in the random rubble at the N end and from the circular tower stump at the SW corner.While no complete example was found, the largest piece has lateral dimensions of 220 m.Both types are of a coarse sandy pink and grey buff fabric.The body clay is thickly intermingled with numerous small quartz inclusions.A number of pieces have been fully oxidised in firing but most have a reduced grey sandwich core.They are 12 to 13 mm thick.Although generally flat in appearance a number of fragments have an undulated upper surface with shallow roller indentations which indicate a similar manufacturing process to the ridge tiles from the Perth High Street excavation.There is evidence of a slight throw-off at the lateral edges or of an * 151

Archaeology · Architectural engineering · Civil engineering · Geography · Roof · Tile · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Building materials and conservation · Chemistry · Engineering

• A Thirteenth-Century Tile Kiln Site at North Grange, Meaux, Beverley, Yorkshire

  Elizabeth Eames, Elizabeth S Eames•Medieval Archaeology•1961

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