A survey of medieval floor tiles in St Andrews Cathedral Museum and the Abbot's House, Arbroath Abbey

Abstract

The opportunity was afforded by chance finds of medieval floor tiles from St Andrews Cathedral and in the Abbot's House at Arbroath Abbey to re-examine some wider aspects of previous work on medieval floor tiles from Scottish ecclesiastical and secular sites. An attempt is made to suggest the extent of the tile pavement in St Andrews Cathedral and the dating and origin of the tiles in general. The limitations of the Cistercian evidence in southern Scotland is appraised. The methodology used to describe and classify the tiles is that recommended by the Medieval Tile Seminar held in Cambridge in 1978 and intended for use in the national census.