Staff
Penny Dransart
SCOTTISH EPISCOPAL PALACES PROJECT
The archaeological excavation at Fetternear in 2005.
Photograph: SEPP
In 1995 the late Nicholas Bogdan and Penelope Dransart established the Scottish Episcopal Palaces Project (SEPP). Its purpose is to investigate the development of bishop's palaces in Scotland up to the disestablishment of the episcopacy at the end of the 17th century. Medieval bishops were amongst the nobles who constructed cathedrals, churches, halls and castles, hence an investigation of their residences provides the basis for enquiring into the relationship between ecclesiastical and castellar architecture. The project explores the physical and allegorical aspects of bishop's palaces in their landscape setting.
Initially, SEPP has focused on the medieval dioceses of Aberdeen and Moray, where the project's research has identified fifteen possible episcopal sites. Detailed work has been conducted on two in particular: Kinneddar (diocese of Moray) and Fetternear (diocese of Aberdeen).
In exploring the multi-functional roles of medieval bishops' palaces, SEPP investigates how the bishops conducted their pastoral and temporal work in a manner suited to their lordly status, taking into account their need for defence on spiritual as well as on physical levels. The study of episcopal material culture involved in this research is complemented by another Lampeter project, which focuses on the study of medieval church vestments: Celebrating the Eucharist and religious festivals in medieval Wales: church vestments.
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