There is a door in each of the north and south walls near the opposite ends, which have square lintels with rounded shoulders, as shown in Fig. 1402; and three narrow lancet windows (Figs. 1402 and 1403), two in the east wall and one
in the west wall. These windows are about 12 inches wide, and have the arches cut out of two stones, with wide splays towards the interior. Between the two, in the east gable, there is a central buttress with splayed base (see Fig. 1403).
These features appear to indicate that this was originally rather an early church, probably of about the close of the first pointed period, but it appears to have been almost rebuilt, probably in the fifteenth century.
The belfry on the west gable (Fig. 1404) is even later, and bears the date of 1676.
This church is pleasantly situated at the head of a little valley through which winds the stream of the Brothock, at a distance of between one and two miles north from Arbroath or Aberbrothock. Previous to the Reformation it was the parish church of Arbroath. The edifice stands on the top of a regularly shaped mound, and occupies nearly the whole of the summit. It has been the site of a religious settlement from a very remote period, far earlier than the erection of the great abbey at Arbroath. This is shown by several Norman wrought stones that have been found on the site, as well as a large and most important group of elaborately carved sculptured stones, relics of the Celtic church which once stood here. Vigianus has been recognised as the Latinised form of the name of St. Fechin of Fohbar, an Irish saint who died in 664. Dr. Joseph Anderson mentions that the twelfth century builders had utilised a large quantity of fragments of sculptured monuments as building materials.[184]
In 1871, under the direction of Dr. R. Rowand Anderson, architect, the church was restored and considerable additions were made to it. A large polygonal apse, with massive buttresses, was built at the east end, a second aisle was formed on the north side of the existing north aisle, and the tower was raised and finished with a saddle-back roof. At the same time a new roof and internal fittings were added, making the edifice one of the most seemly parish churches in Scotland.
Previous to this restoration, the structure consisted (as shown in Fig. 1405) of a central nave of eight bays, with north and south aisles, and a western tower. The original Norman church appears to have occupied the site of the north aisle, and to have extended in width to about the centre
of the present nave. Parts of the east and west gable walls still remain. At a later period, probably about the middle of the fifteenth century, the church was extended to the south, and was converted into a building with a nave and a north aisle; and again at a still later period, in 1485, the south wall was taken down and a south aisle erected. The north and south aisles correspond in a general way with each other (Fig. 1406), and although the pillars on the north side are round and those on the south side are octagonal, both have very simple caps and bases, all of late form.
The arches of the arcade on both sides are round with broad notched splays. There are three clerestory windows on the north side, of a square shape. They formerly had oak lintels on the inside, but these, being decayed, were removed during the restoration, and the stone arches shown in Fig. 1406 were put in. On the south side there are eight clerestory windows, arched throughout.
The west tower is not in the centre, but occupies the space between the centre of the nave and the line of the south arcade. It appears to be an addition, but its lower plain vaulted story was probably erected before the addition of 1485, while the upper portion is of later construction. There is an entrance through the tower to the church, which, from the relative positions of the two, is not in the centre. The opening of a flat arched form is shown in Fig. 1406.
In 1242 Bishop de Bernham consecrated the Church of St. Vigean. It was again consecrated, along with two altars and the cemetery, in 1485 after the additions were built by Bishop George O’Brien, Bishop of Dromore, in Ireland,[185] acting probably, as Dr. Duke says, for the Bishop of St. Andrews.
This fragment (Fig. 1407) is all that remains of the monastery of the Red Friars at Dunbar. The field in which it stands is still known as the Friars’ Croft.
It is generally supposed[186] that this building was originally a belfry of the monastery, and that it was, at a subsequent period, converted into a pigeon house; but it is much more likely that, besides being the belfry, it was also the pigeon house of the monastery from the first. It appears to be still very much in its original state. The walls which support the central portion (Fig. 1408), which rise from arches in the interior (Fig. 1409) and give the structure its belfry-like aspect, are evidently as old as any other part of the structure, and the supporting arches with their corbels are not insertions.
It will be observed that in order to get solidity and strength in the walls under these arches, the nests or pigeon holes are almost entirely left out in those portions (see Fig. 1409). The cross beam and upright post seen in the sketch are old. The ladder, which is fixed, enabled a man to go up and search for the eggs.
This monastery was founded in 1218 by Patrick, sixth Earl of Dunbar,
but these remains clearly belong to an age some two or three centuries later. From the history above referred to, the monastery appears to have been suppressed before the Reformation, about the year 1529, at which date the brethren were translated to Peebles.
On a knoll within the grounds of Keith House, situated about five miles east from Tynehead Station, and a similar distance south from Ormiston, stand the ruins of an ancient church. It is surrounded by an old churchyard, and has a number of monuments erected against the south wall. According to an inscription on a tablet fixed to the wall, this edifice was “erected as a private chapel in the reign of David I. (1224-53) by Hervie de Keith, King’s Marischal; in the reign of Alexander II. (1214-49) it became the church of the parish of Keith Marischal; in 1618 this parish was joined to that of Keith Hunderbey, now called Humby.”[187]
The church (Fig. 1410) is now a ruin and is covered with a thick growth of ivy. It measures, internally, 59 feet 8 inches in length by 14 feet in width at the east end, and 15 feet in width at the west end. The east end is apparently the oldest portion, the east wall and north wall, as far as the break shown in the Plan, and a corresponding portion of the south wall being faced with ashlar. The remainder of the structure, westwards from the above, is built with rubble, and is apparently of later date. The north wall is much broken down, but the other walls are in fair preservation. The east end, as viewed from the interior (Fig. 1411) (where the growth of ivy allows the features to be tolerably seen), is an unusual and rather striking design, consisting of two narrow lancet windows, widely splayed internally, and a large vesica-formed opening above them. These windows have a broad double splay on the exterior of the jambs and arches.
One round-headed and cusped window survives in the south wall close to the east end (Fig. 1412), and the Plan shows that there has been another window adjoining, but it is now built up. The west end wall (Fig. 1413)
contains a single small pointed window, evidently of a late date. So far as can now be ascertained from the building the east end or chancel is comparatively ancient, probably of the beginning of the sixteenth century, and the remainder has been rebuilt not long after the Reformation.
A good seventeenth century monument is erected against the south wall (see Fig. 1412).
The village of Fordoun lies in the picturesque glen of the Luther Water, about 2½ miles west from Fordoun Railway Station. The name of Saint Palladius, the early “apostle of the Scots,” is attached to a small
chapel which stands in the churchyard surrounding the parish church. Dr. Skene’s opinion[188] is that Palladius was sent to Ireland (then the country of the Scots) and that Terrananus or Ternan, his disciple, brought
his relics either from Ireland or from Galloway (in one of which places he had been martyred) to his native district in the territories of the Southern Picts, and as the founder of the church of Fordoun, in honour of Palladius, became to some extent identified with him. Be that as it may, the name of Palladius has been handed down from the fifth century in connection with a religious establishment in the place. A chapel, a well, and an annual fair are named after him. The small chapel which now bears the name of the Saint is a modern restoration. It is a plain oblong structure (Fig. 1414), 39 feet by 18 feet internally. The walls are low, and there is a pointed gable at each end (Fig. 1415). The east wall has a recess, which probably contained a monument, and the west wall a round-headed entrance doorway. There are three small square-headed windows in the south wall and a doorway in the north wall.
The east end is probably the oldest part. There is a burial-vault beneath it. An ambry with round head near the north door, and a plain pointed piscina at the south side of the eastern recess, are the only ancient appurtenances.
A chapel here is frequently mentioned in the records of the Priory of St. Andrews. It is not called a church till 1244.[189]
The Friars’ Glen, which runs north-westward from Fordoun, was, in the fifteenth century, in the possession of the Carmelite Friars of Aberdeen.
A roofless ruin (Fig. 1416), about two miles south of Gatehouse, with walls fairly entire. It measures internally about 71 feet long by about 20 feet wide, and is lighted by windows in the south wall, and two high narrow windows in the east end, over which, in the apex, there is a shallow niche. There is only one small high window in the north wall.
The entrance door is in the south wall, not far from the centre of the church. In each end of the church there is a doorway, but these are probably modern. In the south wall, near the east end in the usual position of the piscina, there is what Mr. Coles calls an ambry, roughly formed out of a single stone. It is surrounded with a large hollow moulding 4 inches wide, over which it measures 1 foot 8 inches wide by 2 feet 6 inches high, and 9 inches in depth.
Mr. Muir[191] classes Girthon with a number of other churches which may be either of the Norman or first pointed period.
The fragmentary ruins of this structure are situated on the left bank of the Clyde near Bothwell, at a point where the river forms a sudden bend from west to north, and where the priory is confronted on the opposite side by the great donjon of Bothwell Castle. The eastern walls of the priory stand on the very edge of a precipice, which rises perhaps 80 or 100 feet above the river. The buildings at this part are situated on fairly level ground, but immediately to the west the ground rises rapidly, so that the cloister garth (Fig. 1417) and the western enclosing walls are on a considerably higher level than the main buildings. The ruins cover a space of ground measuring about 150 feet from east to west by about 115 feet from north to south. The western enclosing wall is from 5 to 10 feet in height, and the northern wall stands to the height of about 10 feet. The southern wall is nearly all gone, except a part at the return of the buildings at the east and west ends.
At the north-east corner stands a two-storied structure, the walls of which, except the south one, are almost entire. This was probably the prior’s house. It enters by a doorway at the west end of the south wall, and adjoining the door there appears to have been a stair to the upper floor (which is the floor shown on the Plan), but the place is in so confused a state with ruins and vegetation, that little regarding its arrangement can be made out. The house contained two rooms, one at each end, with the stair between. There are a fireplace and a window in each gable, and the eastern window looks straight across the river to the castle donjon. Along the north side of the house the ground is steep and inaccessible. On the south side of this house there was a courtyard with a building at the east end, the end wall of which still stands two stories high, in continuation of the gable of the prior’s house.
Adjoining this to the south is an apartment said, by the local guide, to be the chapel. Of this, however, almost nothing remains, except a part of the west wall, in which there is a stoup (Fig. 1418) hollowed out of a stone wrought with all the appearance of a corbel, like those found in the castles. On the face of the corbel is an incised cross. It is this feature which has obtained for the apartment the name of the chapel. There is a window in the west wall above the stoup, but with nothing of
an ecclesiastic character about it. This building does not appear to have been the church. It is more likely that the latter was placed somewhere about the line of the south boundary wall. It could not have stood anywhere outside of what is shown in the Plan on the north side, as in all this locality the ground is inaccessible.
A ruined fragment stands at the south-east corner of the monastery. It is a vaulted apartment, commanding the long reach of the river before
it takes its northern bend. There is a narrow pathway in front of this apartment, giving access to it. The path is protected from the cliff by a parapet wall returned at the south end, where there is a shot hole. This parapet has gone on to join the buildings at the prior’s house.
The parish church of Blantyre stood in a village of the same name, and belonged to the priory, which is said to have been founded for Austin canons, and endowed with the tithes and revenues of the parish church, by Alexander II. Spottiswoode asserts that Blantyre was a cell depending on Holyrood. In Bagimond’s Roll (1275), it is valued at £66, 13s. 4d. Chalmers states that this small monastery was founded by Alexander II. for canons regular brought from Jedburgh, and that the monks of Jedburgh retired here during the war with England.
The barony belonged to the Dunbars as far back as 1368. Walter Stewart, son of the Laird of Minto, was made commendator by James VI., and the Barony of Blantyre was erected, in 1606, into a temporal lordship in his favour, with the title of Lord Blantyre.
Covington is a hamlet in the Upper Ward, about four miles south from Carstairs Junction. A church existed here from the time of David I., and is frequently referred to in deeds. It stood near the Castle[192] of the Lindsays of Covington, who acquired the manor before 1442, and was no doubt in their gift and that of their predecessors in the property. The dedication seems to have been to St. Michael.[193]
The existing church (Fig. 1419) is of considerable age, but has been a good deal tampered with. It stands in the old churchyard, no doubt on the same site as the original edifice. The church is a simple oblong
chamber 72 feet 3 inches in length and 22 feet 4 inches in breadth externally. The old pointed windows (Fig. 1420) still remain in the south wall, three of them having a mullion and simple tracery, that of the eastmost being very good. The eastmost window has also good mouldings in
the jambs and arch (Fig. 1421). The second window from the east is narrow and ogee headed, and probably marks the position of the rood screen.
An old doorway remains, though built up, near the north-west angle. In the arch there is inserted a shield (Fig. 1422) bearing the arms of the Lindsays, to whom the castle belonged, and the letters W. L. and the date 1659.
The east end has been entirely altered, the east window having probably been built up, and an outside stair erected to give access to a gallery at that end.
Before the Reformation Auldcathie formed a separate parish, but it is now included in the parish of Dalmeny, of which it forms a detached portion. The ruins of the old church (Fig. 1423) now stand neglected in the middle of a large field. The walls are much reduced, and are gradually crumbling away, but the plan is still quite entire. The structure measures, internally, about 30 feet in length by 15 feet in width. There has been a door near the west end, both in the north and south walls, two windows in the south wall, and none in either of the north, east, or west walls. There is a recess for a benitier, an ambry, near the south door, and an ambry in the east wall. Some more ancient stones seem to have been
used in building the latter. The features are all so simple that it is difficult to fix the date of the edifice, but it does not appear to be very old.
In the ancient Taxatio this church is valued at only 4 marks. As it is not taxed in Bagimond’s Roll, it appears to have belonged in the thirteenth century to some religious house.
RESTALRIG COLLEGIATE CHURCH, Mid-Lothian.[194]
According to the legendary history of the Blessed Virgin Triduan, Lestalrig or Restalrig, a village to the east of Edinburgh, might claim a very great antiquity. Triduan is said to have died at Restalrig in the year 510.
A church can be traced here as early as the twelfth century, and it afterwards became the parish church of Leith. This edifice is frequently mentioned in connection with gifts bestowed upon it. The church of Restalrig was erected into a Collegiate establishment by James III., and was rebuilt by him, as stated in the Papal Bull of 1487. James IV. was also a benefactor to the foundation, and endowed an additional chaplain in 1512, and twelve years later another rectory was annexed to the church by James V.
The edifice has unfortunately been almost entirely destroyed. In 1560 it was resolved “that the Kirk of Restalrig, as a monument of Idolatrie be
raysit and utterlie caste downe and destroyed.” This was apparently done, as it is recorded that the ashlar work from the church was used by a
certain citizen “to big his hous with.” In 1836 the church was restored, being practically rebuilt.
In the churchyard, however, there still exists a somewhat remarkable structure. Externally it is a mausoleum-like building, covered with turf. It is sometimes supposed to be “the crypt or family vault erected by Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig (who died 1440-41), by whom indeed it may have been built, while it has been used as such by successive proprietors.” “It was undoubtedly
attached to the college, perhaps as the chapter house or St. Triduan’s Chapel.”
This building is a hexagon on plan (Fig. 1424), measuring 29 feet in internal diameter, and stands about 3 feet from the south wall of the church, against which the angle buttresses have impinged.
On each of the three sides facing towards the south there is a window, now built up, each of which has a very flat four-centred arch, and contains three cusped lights (Fig. 1425), divided by two mullions. The section of the jambs and mullions is shown in Fig. 1426. The roof is vaulted (Fig. 1427) with ribs springing from a central pier, which has a filleted roll towards each angle (Fig. 1428).
The ribs of the vault are moulded, and there is a ridge rib running round, with bosses and shields at the junctions with the other ribs (see Fig. 1427). The ribs spring from the caps of the central pillar and the caps of shafts in the angles. The style of the carving of these caps and the foliage of the bosses is evidently of the third or late period (Fig. 1429). From its use as a sepulchral vault the floor has now been greatly filled up with earth, which rises almost to the caps of the central shaft and wall shafts.
It is not known when the turf was piled up over the roof, but it is very desirable that it should be removed, and the windows opened up, and the interior cleaned out. It would then be seen to be, as Mr. Laing says, “a charming specimen of the architecture of the fifteenth century.”
The ruined church of Newlands stands in the midst of the old churchyard, in the retired and quiet valley of the Lyne, which flows southwards towards the Tweed from near the foot of the Pentland Hills. It is about four miles from West Linton Station on the Dolphinton Railway.
The church (Fig. 1430), which is a simple oblong in plan, is evidently in some degree of ancient date; but it has been considerably altered in post-Reformation times, in order to make it suitable for Presbyterian service. For this purpose two large square-lintelled windows (Fig. 1431) have been inserted in the south wall, and one doorway near the east end of that wall (Fig. 1432) (the lintel of which bears the date of 1705). The ancient round-arched doorway near the west end (see Fig. 1431) has been
preserved, and has also been made available in later times. The later internal arrangements would thus be the usual Presbyterian ones, of having the pulpit placed in the centre of the south wall, with a large window on each side of it, and a central passage down the church, to which access was obtained by the two doorways near the east and west ends.
The church was doubtless originally lighted by several small windows in the south and west walls, and by a large pointed window in the east wall. The latter (see Fig. 1432) and the round-headed doorway near the west end of the south wall are the principal ancient features. The doorway has a bead on edge, and a plain hood moulding. It has all the appearance of being of early date. The east end is partly built with ashlar, and has a moulded string course near the ground running along part of it. The pointed window has double splays on the jambs and arch, both in the interior and exterior. It has doubtless had mullions at one time, but it is now impossible to find traces of them. The window is doubtless of third pointed date.
Various sepulchral enclosures have been added to the church, both internally and externally. That at the west end (see Fig. 1431) has probably had a coat of arms in the recess above the door, but it is now gone.
A number of quaintly carved tombstones of seventeenth and eighteenth century date are still crumbling away in the churchyard.
“The name of Newlands refers to the era when the lands lying around the Kirktown were first brought into cultivation by Scoto-Saxon bands.”[195] At the end of the thirteenth century Newlands belonged to the monks of Dunfermline. In Bagimond’s Roll the Rectoia de Newland, in the Deanery of Peebles, is valued at £16.
The fragmentary ruins of the church of the monastery of the Redfriars stand in the middle of a fir plantation immediately to the west of the town of Peebles. All architectural interest connected with the edifice has been destroyed. The freestone work which Grose specially commends has been carried away, leaving only bare and ragged whinstone walls, and giving the structure a very desolate appearance. The monastic buildings were situated on the north side of the church; and the fir plantation, which seems to represent their extent, runs in that direction for about 100 feet, with an average length from east to west of about 250 feet, the whole extent of the plantation being a little less than an acre. It is probable, from these dimensions, that the monastic buildings were extensive, but, unfortunately, their destruction has been very complete. The ruins of the nave remain (Fig. 1433), and measure, within the walls, about 70 feet 6 inches from east to west by a width of 26 feet 9 inches. Grose gives the length of the church as 102 feet, and there are indications (see Plan) that it was longer at one time than it is now. There is a tower at the west end, which measures about 20 feet by 21 feet, and had an opening into the church, now built solidly up. From a view of the church in Grose’s Antiquities of Scotland, the building was evidently in a much better condition in 1790 than now. It appears to have been then entire, wanting only the roof, and the tower was finished with a projecting parapet and two gables, after the manner of a pele tower.
So completely has the place been harried that little is left to describe. There were three pointed windows in the south wall and one in the east gable, the latter of which (Fig. 1434) still partly remains. Against the north wall of the church there is an erection called the Douglas vault, to which a door opens from the church. It is in a very dilapidated state, although the vaulted roof is complete. Immediately to the west of this vault, with a passage between of about 7 feet, there are indications of other vaulted buildings, and similar indications are found at the east end of the church, all in a very fragmentary condition. In the historical books relating to the locality, a story is repeated of the finding, on this site, of a magnificent cross in 1261, of the miracles performed by it, and the ultimate founding of a church by the king, which was called the Cross Church. Such a church existed in 1296, for Frere Thomas, Mestre de la Maison de Seint Croce, de Pebblis, swore fealty to Edward I. at Berwick.[196]
At the Reformation the Cross Church became the church of the parish, and on the lintel of the door at the east end are cut the words “Feir God,” with the date 1656. A portion to the west of this may have been