the part, about 30 feet in length, which Grose says was walled off to form a school, probably at the date just mentioned.
The monastic buildings were used for various purposes, such as a school and schoolmaster’s house, and for persons suffering from the plague, but from about the beginning of the eighteenth century they gradually became ruinous, and have now reached their present lamentable condition.
Rather less than a quarter of a mile west from the Cross Church there stands the tower of St. Andrew’s Church. It has been so completely restored or transformed by the late Dr. Chambers, that it is now of no interest whatever as a specimen of the ancient architecture of Scotland. A view of the tower as it appeared at the end of the eighteenth century will be found in the Antiquities of Scotland by Captain Grose; and on the Ordnance Map there is a plan of the church, from which it may be gathered that the tower was a western one, in a similar position to that of the Cross Church. The plan shows a nave measuring about 75 feet long by 40 feet wide, and a choir about 50 feet long, having apparently a building of some kind, either an aisle or chapel, along the north side. The total length of the building was about 140 feet.
The Church of St. Andrew at Peebles was consecrated by Bishop Jocelin of Glasgow in 1195.[197] St. Andrew’s was the parish church of Peebles.
In 1543 this church was made Collegiate. In 1548 it was burned down by the English, and never rebuilt. Captain Grose says that all the arches of the doors and windows were semicircular.
A ruined church situated near the village of the same name, about two and a half miles east from Auchterarder. The walls are almost entire, except part of the south one, which has been knocked down to give room
for a mausoleum of the Montrose family, bearing the inscription “John Adam—fecet 1736.”
The church (Fig. 1435) measures, externally, 65 feet 2 inches by 21 feet 9 inches. Its only architectural features are a seventeenth century belfry on the west end (Fig. 1436), and two small pointed windows (Fig. 1437) in the east end. The belfry, almost concealed with ivy, has long
narrow openings on the east and west sides, and small side openings. The east windows are between 2 and 3 feet above the floor, and are about 8 inches wide. The daylight of the northmost of these windows (Fig. 1438) is 2 feet 8½ inches high, and for some inexplicable reason that of the south window is about 4 inches less. Both have an ogee arch-head, and are lintelled on the inside. There is an ambry in the north wall near the east end. The usual set-off occurs on the east wall just above the windows.
The west end of the church is occupied by a modern burial vault and
|
Fig. 1437.—Aberuthven Church. Interior of East End. |
Fig. 1438.—Aberuthven Church. North Window in East Wall. |
the centre of the building. The church was a cell of Inchaffray, and was dedicated to St. Cathan. The existing structure is evidently of late date.
Alyth is now a busy manufacturing town, and forms the terminus of a small branch line off the main railway between Perth and Forfar. It stands on the north side of Strathmore, at the point where the hills begin to rise, and the houses of the old part of the town are picturesquely terraced on the hillside. On one of these terraces may be seen the ruins of the ancient
church of St. Moloc or Malachi, according to the Statistical Account, but Mr. Muir calls it St. Ninian’s. The original fair of the village is still called St. Mologue’s and the date corresponds with the day of St. Moloc. Before the Reformation the benefice of Alyth was attached to one of the prebends of Dunkeld, and the patronage was exercised by the Bishop.
The old church was demolished about 1845, having been unroofed at that date when the last Statistical Account was written.
The portion which still survives (Fig. 1439) in the middle of the churchyard consists of the south arcade of the nave and part of the chancel. The arcade (Fig. 1440) has plain octagonal pillars and three round arches with broad splays. The caps and bases are moulded, and indicate a late date.
The chancel is surrounded with a plain wall 6 to 7 feet high, and has a piscina in the south wall.
This old church is situated a little to the north of the town, and is surrounded by an old churchyard. It is densely ivy clad and generally
concealed by vegetation, and thoroughly neglected. The church (Fig. 1441) measures about 81 feet long by about 24 feet 6 inches wide externally. There is almost no architectural feature now
visible except a piscina (Fig. 1442) in the usual place in the south wall near the east end, which part of the building is walled off as a tomb house. The piscina is triangular headed, somewhat like the one in the choir of Paisley Abbey. It is only visible through a chink in the door of the tomb. There has been some kind of projection in the south wall near the centre, but owing to vegetation and rubbish (Fig. 1443) it cannot be properly examined, nor for the same reason can anything be made out regarding any openings in the south wall. Both of the side walls are considerably ruined. There is a slightly projecting splayed base at the east wall, with the usual set-off just below the gable.
The edifice was dedicated to St. Mechessock, and in 1198 the church of Auchterarder was given by Gilbert, third Earl of Strathearn, to the Abbey of Inchaffray, but the existing ruin belongs to a much later age.
A well at a short distance south from the church still bears “St. M‘Kessog’s” name, and on his day (10th March) the principal fair of the town is held.[198] The church was served by a parochial curate appointed by the Abbot of Inchaffray.
Finely situated on one of the most beautiful reaches of the Tay, a little below the Linn of Camsie and opposite the village of Stanley, this ruined church, with its churchyard, occupies the end of a plateau which slopes suddenly down to the river on the north side, and to a deep
ravine on the east; so that, like most churches bearing the name of St. Michael, it stands on a height. The building, as will be seen from the Plan (Fig. 1444) and the view (Fig. 1445), is still in a fair state of preservation, although it is quite evident, on the spot, that the trees which crowd the inside (but which are not shown on the sketch) will soon work the destruction of the walls. One great trunk has half obtruded itself into the heart of the wall at the doorway, and has so burst the wall that the doorway and the whole of the south-west corner will probably soon come to the ground. Another tree has toppled over the upper stone of the belfry, which lies not yet broken to pieces.
The church is finely built, and is well worth some little attention. It is of small dimensions, measuring on the outside 50 feet 5 inches by
20 feet 6 inches, and on the inside 43 feet 10 inches by 15 feet. The doorway, which is in the usual place on the south side near the west end, is round-arched with a wide splay, and is built with large stones. There
were probably three windows, all on the south side. One adjoining the doorway is lost where the wall is ruined, and another at the east end has only the sill remaining. The centre window (Fig. 1446) is complete; it is 5 inches wide with a slight chamfer on the edge, and with the opening on the inside splayed out to 3 feet 5 inches wide. An ambry occupies the usual position in the north wall. Both of the end walls have a set-off at the level of the eaves, as shown by Fig. 1445. The projecting eaves course and this set-off coincide, and their splays are very simply worked out (see Fig. 1446). The belfry on the west gable is a pre-Reformation example of a type which became very common in Presbyterian times. Below the belfry there is a small splayed slit with a segmental arched lintel. The east gable is terminated with a cross with a massive gableted base.
Of this once great abbey almost nothing remains. The present parish church stands partly on the site of the monastic church, and the conventual buildings, with the cloister garth, occupied the ground which now forms the churchyard, at the south corner of which is the gateway with the
angle buttress shown in Fig. 1447. This small fragment is the only piece of building, properly so called, which exists. It comprises a plain opening 6 feet wide by about 7 feet high, leading through a wall about 9 feet thick, and at the corner it is flanked by a massive angle buttress. The ruin rises to a height of about 25 to 30 feet, and stands about 70 yards south from the church.
The churchyard extends for a distance of about 400 feet from east to west, by about 280 feet from north to south, and these dimensions in all probability give an idea of the extent of ground formerly occupied by the monastery, and which is believed to have been the site of a Roman camp.
The monastery was founded by Malcolm IV. in 1164, and was the sixth in the order of construction of the thirteen Cistercian Abbeys in Scotland. William the Lion granted a site for the abbey of about 50 acres of land, and also gifted it with the King’s Chase and a portion of waste land. In 1233 the church was dedicated, under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin, during the time of Alexander, the eighth abbot. King Alexander II. was a generous benefactor to the abbey, and amongst the nobles the Hays of Errol and the Earls of Athole were conspicuous in their gifts, the latter presenting, amongst other things, timber for the construction of the buildings. At the Reformation the value of the estates of the abbey are estimated by Dr. Rogers “as equal to at least £8000 of present money.”
The buildings, it is believed, were destroyed by the excited multitude who wrecked the religious houses at Perth and neighbourhood in 1559, and a portion of the buildings seems to have been occupied as a residence by Leonard Leslie, the first lay commendator, who died in 1605. In 1606 James VI., desirous to “suppress and extinguish the memorie of the abbacie,” converted the lands and baronies into a temporal lordship in favour of James Elphinstone, second son of the first Lord Balmerino, with the title of Baron Coupar. This lord appears to have made the abbey his residence, as in 1645 it was assailed by 200 soldiers belonging to the army of Montrose, in revenge for the support given to the Covenanters by Elphinstone. Probably this was the finishing blow given to the buildings, as in 1682 the place is described as “nothing but rubbish.”
In the Rental Book, from 1480 and onwards, there are several notices of the Porters, who, from their office, assumed that name as their family designation, the office having become hereditary. When the last of them demitted office it is stated in a charter that they had been hereditary porters from time immemorial, and in the Chamberlain’s Accounts Robert Porter received a commuted allowance, consequent on the secularisation of the abbey.
At the west end of the present church there are the remains of some of the main piers of the nave. As shown by Fig. 1448 these indicate work of the first pointed period, probably of the thirteenth century.
A broken slab, measuring about 3 feet 3 inches high by 3 feet in breadth (Fig. 1449), is lying in the churchyard. In the Rental Book it is referred to as being built into the wall of the church which preceded the present one (erected about thirty years ago), and as bearing “the effigies of a priest,” with the inscription on the margin—Monachus de Cupro qui obiit anno dni. Millesimo quadringentesimo quqgesio.[200] From the present state of the fragment it is evident that little respect is paid in Coupar to the remains of the ancient abbey.
The two sculptured slabs (Figs. 1450 and 1451) which are at present lying in a tool-house in all likelihood adorned the base of a mural tomb. They are evidently works of the end of the fourteenth century or of the fifteenth century. They are supposed to be remains of a monument to the Hays of Errol. Fig. 1451 appears to represent a pair who have been guilty, and are suffering under the prospect of finding themselves in the hands of the headsman.
On a house opposite the abbey occur the royal arms, shown by Fig. 1452, and throughout the village there are numerous carved and moulded stones to be seen, showing that the whole place has been built out of the ruins of the monastery.
In the Chamberlain’s Accounts for 1563 he describes the chapel “as being so completely wrecked, that with a view to preserve the timber, he had built up both doors; also the undermost door of the steeple. In the cloister he had collected the slates which had been removed from the roof. He had also repaired the broken windows, providing them with iron framework. The abbot’s apartments he had partially
restored, and with proper fastenings made secure the granaries and store-houses. From having, in August 1562, accommodated the royal stud (during a passing visit of Queen Mary), the stables of the monastery are in the Account styled the ‘quenes stables.’”[201]
We have already referred to the Earls of Errol as benefactors to the abbey, and amongst the Errol Papers[202] there occurs a “Copy of the Tabill Quhilk ves at Cowper of all the Erles of Erroll quhilk ver Buryd in the Abbey Kirk thair,” from which it appears that sixteen Earls were buried in the monastery. Of these we suppose no memorial now remains; but we may take this opportunity of introducing a sketch (Fig. 1453) of a recumbent figure, now built into the churchyard wall of
Errol (Carse of Gowrie), which, from the following inscription, probably represents the eighth Earl referred to in the above “tabill”—“Item penultimo die mensis Ianuarij, Anno Domini M.D.LX(X)III. obijt bone memorie Georgius comes De Errol. apud Pertham et sepultus est Errolie.”
There are few notices of the buildings of the abbey. A plan of it was made about 1820 by William Mitchell, a mason, who corresponded with
General Hutton regarding it; but they evidently could not come to terms, and it is not in his collection in the Advocates’ Library. Mitchell calls it “a true and just plan of the outlines of that pile of building.”
Dr. Marshall, in his Historic Scenes in Forfarshire, p. 144, had this plan before him when he wrote, and he characterises it as being unreliable. After a good deal of correspondence we obtained a sight of it, and have no hesitation in saying that it is a pure work of imagination, and is not a plan of the abbey at all; and, judging from the correspondence with General Hutton, we suspect the author intended to play a hoax on him, and yet was afraid to go the full length, and this is probably the reason why the General never got the plan.
In 1492 and following years there are references to Thomas Mowtray, mason. He was sworn to be “leyl and trew,” during the term of his life, to the abbot and chapter, and he is obliged to “wyrk leilly and profitably the masonwerk of our forsaid abbay, and to be the master of the werk, in al thingis that langis hys craft of masonry in our abbay or in our qwarellis
as it nedis.” He was to have 6 “markis” yearly with his meat and drink, a house with 2½ acres of land; further, the Lord Abbot “promised to give him yearly one of his old albs reaching to the ankles.” He was to instruct the “prentys” in all “craft of masonry.”[203]
In 1485 John, the mason, and his son are continued in the service of the abbey. In 1468 Thomas Bel was hired “for the constant carpentry” of the abbey; he had workmen under him and apprentices. There are also agreements with smiths, as John Lutare, smith, who “was hired (in 1484) for the common work of the monastery in the forge,” and next year David Smyth is hired to succeed William Byning, who was formerly in the same service. John Duncanson, tiler, in 1492, was to labour in his trade and in every other work which he knew. Nine years earlier John Sclater was hired as apprentice to work at his trade of tiler (tegulator). Patrick Dog (in 1490) was the abbey sawyer, with three workmen under him, who each day were to turn out “fourteen draughts for each saw.”[204]
A ruin situated on the braes of the Carse of Cowrie, in the parish of Longforgan, about two miles distant from Fowlis Church. It is in a very fragmentary condition (Fig. 1454), only the chancel arch remaining in anything like a perfect state, together with the foundations of the side
walls and part of the east wall. As shown in Fig. 1455, the chancel is about 28 feet long by 19 feet wide inside. The width of the chancel arch is about 11 feet, and from the ground to the top of the cap is about 7 feet 2 inches.
The jambs and arch mouldings (Fig. 1456) are of a simple character, and they are separated by a moulded cap, shown in Fig. 1457. From the form of the base of the jambs and the section of arch and jamb, it may be
inferred that the building is not earlier than the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century.
It will be seen from the Plan that the base of the east wall of the nave
extends a considerable distance northwards from the arch, which is suggestive of the idea that the church had a transept.
There appears to have been at one time a churchyard beside the church, which has now disappeared, having been absorbed into a neighbouring farm.
The Church of Dron belonged to the Abbey of Coupar, which was distant about six miles, in a north-westerly direction.
A small ruined chapel situated on the north side of the Ochil Hills, about three miles south-west from the Bridge of Earn. It is surrounded by an old burial-ground, and adjoins the picturesque seventeenth century mansion of Glenearn.
The building (Fig. 1458), which is roofless, is otherwise fairly entire, but it is densely covered with ivy and its features are not easily seen. It measures about 25 feet 7 inches long by about
11 feet 5 inches wide inside the walls. The door in the south wall is lintelled and has a splay all round. There is a round-headed window (Fig. 1459) at the east end about 9 inches wide and about 2 feet high, having a stepped sill on the inside. A lintelled window in the west gable, now filled with a monument on the inside, measures about 29 inches wide. Both of these windows are splayed on the outside. The end window has been fitted with a smaller window at some later period.
In the centre of the east wall there appears to have been a recess about 4 feet 2 inches wide, and, as far as can be seen, it does not show on the outside. Its sill is about 4 feet up from the floor, and there has evidently been some kind of fixture against the end wall here, probably an
altar. Adjoining this, on the north wall, is a small ambry, checked for a door flush with the inside wall.
The small fragment of ancient work left at Forgandenny, a few miles south of Perth, along with the more important remains in the district, point to the importance of Strathearn in early times. That this has been originally a Norman church there can be no doubt, and it is suggestive and interesting to find such work here and at Dunning, each about two miles distant from Forteviot, the residence of the early Pictish kings.
The building is still in use as the parish church, but has been greatly altered at various times, and now it is only in some bits of detail that its antiquity can be detected. It measures on the inside (Fig. 1460) 70 feet 7 inches long by 21 feet 7 inches wide.
The east wall is in the main of Norman masonry. It has a splayed base, which returns at each corner, but is soon lost, as shown on Plan, by the rapid rising of the ground towards the west. From the east end the ground slopes downwards to a wooded dell which skirts the churchyard on that side.
Two widely splayed narrow windows are shown on the Plan in the east wall, but only the built centre mullion or pier now exists. It is of fine masonry, in four courses 2 feet 10 inches high, and is set at a height to the sill of about 8 or 9 feet above the floor. These windows have been built up, and all traces of them were lost till an examination of the wall for the purpose of preparing this Plan revealed their existence.
Two or three windows in the side walls, with double splays on the exterior, probably belong to the fifteenth century. They are square-headed, and have been greatly knocked about. In the north wall there is a peculiar narrow door about 2 feet 3 inches wide, splayed on the exterior and lintelled like the windows just mentioned.
The doorway to the church, which is now built up, was in the south side near the west end. It appears to have been of Norman work, and a small piece of its enrichment still remains, consisting (Fig. 1461) of the trigonal moulding with a double notch enrichment, frequently found in the outer member of Norman arches. At some later time a porch has been added, as shown on the Plan, when probably the Norman door was dismembered, and the fragment now shown was built into the wall. Sometime after the Reformation, a laird’s seat (belonging to the Oliphants
of Condie) was projected into the church, as shown by dotted lines on the Plan. It was on a high level, and the congregation gained access under it. This seat was done away with by giving the Oliphants of Condie the
porch, which they converted into a burial vault, enlarging it at the same time, and making their seat over it, with an opening into the church.
The Ruthven vault, situated further east, is probably a structure of the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Some closed up windows have features of that period. The seat belonging to Freeland House is situated over it.
The foundations of a building were recently discovered on the north side of the church, exactly opposite this vault (as shown by dotted lines on Plan), suggesting the idea that the simple Norman building had been converted into a cross church.
The bowl of the font (Fig. 1462) still remains. It is octagonal, but
not equal sided, and is somewhat broken. It measures 2 feet 1½ inches over all by about 15 inches high.
Fig. 1463 shows another font which exists at a chapel at Muckersey, a few miles distant. It likewise is octagonal and not equal sided, and has a coat of arms on one side, which we have not been able to identify. The chapel at Muckersey is now used as a family vault, and has no other ancient features.
The ruins of the Abbey of Inchaffray, the ancient Insula Missarum, stand on a wooded mound not far from Madderty Station, about six miles east of Crieff.
The abbey was founded by Gilbert, Earl of Stratherne, who succeeded his father, Earl Ferteth, in 1171, and died in 1223, and his first wife, Matildis, the daughter of William de Aubegni. Their eldest son, Gilchrist, was buried in 1198 at Inchaffray, which had been founded before that date. In 1200, when the great charter of the abbey was granted, the Earl and Countess endowed it with various churches, including St. Mechesseok of Ochterardouer and St. Beanus of Kynkell (illustrated in this volume). They declared their affection for Inchaffray, affirming “so much do we love it that we have chosen a place of sepulture in it for us and our successors, and have already buried there our eldest born.”
The abbey was dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist, and was a house of the canons regular of the order of St. Augustine. Although not reckoned as one of the great monasteries of
Scotland, it was “endowed with many privileges and immunities by David and Alexander, Kings of Scotland,” but its principal benefactors were the family of the Earls of Stratherne, Earl Robert, the son (1223 and 1231) of Gilbert being particularly liberal.
Only one of the abbots, Abbot Maurice, has obtained any popular recognition in history. He it was who blessed the Scottish army at Bannockburn in 1314. Five years afterwards he was promoted to the See of Dunblane, within which diocese Inchaffray is situated.
The first head of the house was Malis, a religious hermit, in whose piety and discretion Earl Gilbert and Matildis had full confidence. At the Reformation Inchaffray suffered the usual fate. Alexander Gordon, brother of George, fourth Earl of Huntly, was made commendator in 1553. Five years later he was promoted to the See of Galloway, and shortly afterwards he was accused, by the General Assembly, of neglecting his duties, and in particular, that he had resigned Inchaffray in favour of a young child, and set divers lands in feu in prejudice of the kirk. The young child was James Drummond, son of David, Lord Drummond of Innerpeffray, in whose favour the abbey was erected into a temporal lordship.
The ruins of the abbey are situated on ground which rises slightly above the surface of the valley. This valley in ancient times was a great
marsh extending for many miles, and it was from this feature of its situation that the abbey received the name by which it was very generally known throughout the middle ages, of “Insula Missarum,” or Isle of Masses. As early as the year 1218 the monks had reclaimed a portion of this marsh, and they doubtless continued their labours; but it was not till 1696 that an Act was obtained, under the authority of Parliament, for dealing effectively with it.[206]
The fields around the abbey are now all cultivated, and the ruins are enclosed with stone dykes, as shown by double lines on the Plan (Fig. 1464); so that the few fragments which remain are now properly protected. Within the dykes almost nothing is visible but a dense mass of trees and brushwood, with mounds of ruins in the utmost confusion. A gable at the north-west corner stands entire (Fig. 1465), with a round-arched vault adjoining, about 21 feet long by 10 feet 6 inches wide and 10 feet high. This is one of the
cellars of the western range of buildings. The walls of this range are fairly entire along their whole length for a height of 7 or 8 feet. The south end wall is also standing for about the same height. The length of this range from north to south is about 97 feet 7 inches. It is probable that the adjoining cellar to the south is entire, but the place is so covered with vegetation that little can be ascertained. The doorway entering from the cloister to the north-west cellar is undoubtedly of an early date. Not much of it remains, but enough to enable the Plan (Fig. 1466) to be made. The nook shaft, a fragment of the capital of which exists, is not later than the beginning of the thirteenth century.
The high gable adjoining (Fig. 1467) is certainly in part at least of a later date; the upper part and the chimney, with its corbelled cope, being of the sixteenth or seventeenth century. On the first floor there has been a large fireplace, the flue of which is still partly visible (see Fig. 1467). A part of the north wall of the cloister stands near the gable. This was part of the south wall of the church (see Plan), and the greater portion of the church would thus be situated outside the present enclosing dyke on the north side.
There are indications at the north-east corner of the surviving gable (at A on Plan) of a wall having extended northwards, which was probably the west wall of the church. At the junction of the south wall of the church and the wall of the western range, and at the height of about 15 feet above the ground, there still exists the corner corbel for supporting the roof of the cloister walk. We can remember when there were other corbels along the church wall also, but they have now disappeared. The part of this wall now standing is in a very precarious state. It evidently extended eastwards for about 120 feet, when it met a cross wall, now represented by a mass of rough masonry about 7 or 8 feet square (see Plan). This mass may represent one of the great piers of a central tower. There are other pieces of masonry throughout the enclosure with numerous trenches and mounds, but, owing to the rank vegetation, it is impossible to make a more satisfactory Plan than the one now given. If the place were cleared out and a judicious search made, considerable remains would doubtless be found.
The average length of the enclosure as it now stands is about 210 feet.
The structure of this church is still entire, although the building is now only used as a place of burial. It is situated on a high knoll overlooking the river Earn, about four miles south-east from Crieff. Near the church on the bank of the river stands the ruined Castle of Innerpeffray, elsewhere described and illustrated.[207] Close to the west end of the church is the Library of Innerpeffray (shown in Fig. 1469), founded by David, Lord Madderty, in 1691. It contains a fine collection of early printed books, and is open to the public and is well worth visiting.