my name is Bob WIll I'm Project Director at the big dig at the Paisley Abbey
and we're working here. We've been here for last four or five weeks and we're investigating the
remains of the great drain and
the monastery that was associated with Paisley Abbey
the drain runs approximately from that
trench to over there, to this trench
diagonally across the road and it runs out
or the last known point of it is in
the grass towards the council buildings
so this would have acted as the main
water supply and drain to the monastery
that was part of the Abbey of Paisley
how the Abbey and the place are pretty
much on their own at the moment surrounded
by this open grass area during the
medieval period this would have been
covered with buildings as part of the
monastery the accommodation, the kitchen
the latrines and the drain has the only evidence that
we've got up standing, below ground of where these buildings would've been
so by investgating the drain, we're hoping to uncover more information about
the monastery and the layout and types of buildings
underneath quite often these drains
were used as a
foundation for a larger building on top  maybe a two or three story building or
sometimes there was an open ditch
between buildings, certainly the drain
here has quite a number of different
architectural styles and the bit where we are
just now is actually a pointed Gothic arch and it's probably one of the
most impressive pieces of architecture
and a monastic drain in Scotland so it's
it's well made, it's high status so
there was probably a building standing
where we are now. Paisley Abbey very important and
it was one of the top ten richest
Cluniac Abbeys in Europe so very important
important to the Stewarts and also an important pilgrimage site so
what we might have here is actually
pilgrims accommodation or guest
accommodation so as a whole range of
possibilities of what the drain and the
buildings associated might relate to 
and that's and what we're trying to uncover
to locate our drain at this part of the trench there are
19th-century references to the drain we 
uncovered and basically collapsing and
this tunnel was revealed then and
certainly, where we are now is
the roof of the drain is now concrete and it probably relates to that 19th
century collapse so what we're trying to
investigate here is what damage that
the collapse has done to the drain and the
surrounding deposits and also where it
meets the medieval stonework and that's
what we're beginning to uncover in this
trench just now so the drain the tunnel
has been known about in the 19th century
but then it was forgotten about and part
of this whole project is to rediscover
the drain and associated buildings.
I work with GUARD Archeology who are based
in Glasgow and we'll be back here
working with Renfrewshire council on doors
open day on September where they will be running a ballet so members of the public
if they are lucky enough will get their names drawn, can actually go down into the drain and
that's over the things that first
weekend in September
GUARD Archeology Limited based in Glasgow and we've got a website that
keeps updates and the work we're doing
we've got a Paisley Abbey blog and there's more
information about the abbey, the excavations and projects that we are
undertaking throughout Scotland
