SDO12323 - Report on the Geophysical Survey at Abbotsbury, Dorset

The geophysical survey at Abbotsbury was commissioned by English Heritage as part of an archaeological evaluation on the site. The purpose being to establish the location of any buildings, as details of the layout of the Abbey are poor. Survey was done using resistance survey as well as magnetic survey. The presence of some old greenhouses did provide some difficulty interpreting the site, as their remains could have been wrongly interpreted as part of the Benedictine Abbey. Overall, the geophysical survey came up with confusing results, with few examples of positive identification of monastic ruins. While there are anomalies which potentially could represent archaeological features, however, much of the site has been previously disturbed, and this has hindered the use of some methods in these areas, and made interpretation of the results more complicated.