David MacGibbon

“ The number of windows is often increased; but they are not arranged on a uniform plan, being generally distributed so as to suit the locality. The windows were no doubt open and unglazed, and seem to have been placed so as to be well sheltered, and as little exposed to the prevailing wind as possible. In some cases there is no window even in the east gable, and the west and north walls are frequently blank. In most examples the windows and doors are narrow and flat-headed, but round-headed doors and windows are also occasionally used, showing the Norman influence. ”

“ No Norman building of that period can be shown to exist in Scotland. Sir Daniel supposes it to be earlier than the Norman part of Holyrood, which was founded in 1128; though probably no part was erected till a considerable time thereafter. Now, the doorway on the south side of Holyrood (the only Norman portion of that building remaining) is not unlike the chancel arch here. The caps of the shafts, the chevron decoration of the arches, and the enriched label are all similar in design, and there is no reason whatever for supposing the one to be older than the other. ”

“ The Norman Conquest, which had been effected with so much violence in England, proceeded by more gentle means in Scotland, at least for a time. The ancient Culdee ecclesiastics having been absorbed or displaced and their revenues appropriated, the Church became gradually settled and established under the authority of Rome, and a stream of Englishmen continued to flow in to fill all the posts of honour and emolument in the ecclesiastical sphere; cathedrals, monasteries, and parish churches arose under the fresh and vigorous impulse of the new order of things. ”

“ The Romanesque architecture of Lombardy, Germany, and Burgundy had wrought out the arrangement of the groined vaulting and the distribution of the forces arising therefrom, and the designing and construction of the necessary buttresses. The subordination of the various members, the division of the piers and arches into orders, each performing a distinct function, the erection of a vaulting shaft at each pier to receive the ribs of the vaults, the construction of ribs to form the groins and carry the panels of the vaults, had all been fully accomplished. ”

“ The choir has had two windows to the east, separated by a small piece of wall. The floor is raised two steps above the level of the nave. There is a doorway in the north wall leading into the eastern portion of the aisle, which may have been the Lady Chapel or sacristy. This building is vaulted, and has an upper story, approached by a very narrow stair in the thickness of the north wall.
The chapel on the ground floor has had an altar to the east, and a piscina in the south wall. The east window is a mere slit, and has a straight-sided arch head, doubtless a late insertion. ”

“ The arch mouldings are still boldly cut, and are separated by well-marked and deep hollows, but grow shallower and broader as time advances. The carving and foliage become lighter and more naturalistic, the ordinary leaves and flowers of the fields being beautifully wrought in the capitals, corbels, and bosses. The detached ball flower is a striking feature of this period. Every wall opening is cusped and feathered, and the niches and arcades are richly decorated. The use of small decorative buttresses on the jambs of the doors, windows, and niches now becomes common. ”

“ The earliest form of sculptured monuments in Scotland, as in the other Celtic divisions of Britain, consists of rude upright stones, engraved with an equal-armed cross enclosed in a circle, accompanied with an inscription in debased Roman capital letters, generally comprising the formula “hic jacet” and the chi-rho symbol. The carving is invariably incised in the stone. We have already met with examples of this class of monument, probably of the fifth century, in the South-West of Scotland, in connection with the Candida Casa of St. Ninian. ”

“ For instance, Unst, which is about 6 miles by 3 miles, had at least twenty-four. Of most of the Shetland churches every trace but a name or a tradition is gone; of others only a heap of stones remains; of others a few fragments of wall enable us to make approximate plans, and one only is tolerably complete. A little labour with pick and spade would enable us, in many instances, to determine more about them than is possible in their present state. No people ought to be more impressed with religion and the uncertainty of life than the Shetlanders. ”

“ Whether the Norman nave had only been projected, but never completed—only the west wall with its doorway and windows and the south doorway being erected—or whether the nave had been finished and afterwards destroyed, it is impossible to say. It is, however, evident that the Norman work in the choir and in the western and south doorways must have preceded the Transition work in the choir and nave by a considerable amount of time. The styles in both cases are quite distinct, and there is evidently a considerable hiatus between them. They do not follow one another by gradual development. ”

“ Joseph Anderson has pointed out, in his Scotland in Early Christian Times, that the early churches of Scotland, like those of Ireland, consisted of a single oblong chamber, with one door and one window, and that these structures were frequently found associated with beehive huts and surrounded by a cashel or rampart. ”

“ There are, however, a few fragments of free standing crosses at Iona, and one fine specimen at Kildalton, in Islay, which exhibit the same characteristics in their sculpture as the pure Celtic upright slabs of the East. (Fig. 8.) When monumental sculpture was revived in the West, at a considerably later date, its style indicates connection with Ireland rather than with the East of Scotland. Free standing crosses abound, and the upright slabs carved on both sides are rare; the grave slabs being recumbent, like those of Ireland. The symbols peculiar to the East are also entirely wanting. ”

“ The arch is enclosed with a label of three-sided section, enriched with a lozenge pattern, and having a small Greek cross in the centre of the arch. Each order rests on the cap of a shaft, the inner shafts being half-rounds, and the outer shafts complete cylinders set in nooks; but these shafts have now disappeared. The caps vary in design, but are of good Norman character.
The bases are much decayed. The abacus of the shafts forms a string course, which was continued round the interior of the nave. It is carved with a saltier-like ornament. ”

“ A little way up from the landing-place stands the half-roofless, though in other respects scarcely at all ruinated, shell of ‘Kilvicoharmaig, the Mother Church of Knapdale,’ surrounded by an open and nearly obliterated burying-ground. Its external plan (Fig. 53) is a simple oblong, measuring 37 feet 5 inches in length and 20 feet in width. Internally the building is divided into chancel and nave, the division being a gabled wall open by a semi-circular arch composed of long thin slates. ”

“ The thirteenth century parish churches are, for the most part, of small dimensions and simple design. They generally consist of a single oblong chamber, without choir or aisles, and are unprovided with towers. Of these simple buildings a considerable number are to be found in the Western Highlands and Islands. They are usually of the plainest description, the windows being simple lancets, with wide internal splay, though they have occasionally a double window with a mullion, and a single plain doorway. ”

“ A common feature in Norman buildings was an arcade running round the walls below the windows. Almost every Norman structure of importance in Scotland contains this arcade, either in the interior or exterior, or both, and the caps and arches are generally elaborately and richly carved with ornaments. ”

“ Not being trammelled by the traditions of an ancient and long-used system, these architects had thrown themselves with energy into the new development of architecture, and it was in this locality that the application of the pointed arch to the difficulties of the vaulting seems to have been first successfully carried out. ”

“ The exterior of the church (Fig. 259) is built with the usual cubic ashlar of the period. All the windows in the building (Fig. 260) have a single pair of shafts with cushion or carved caps, and an arch, of one order, carved with chevron ornament, and a hood mould enriched with faceted patterns. The choir and apse have a boldly projected cornice supported on corbels carved with grotesque heads. ”

“ In France the two-centred arch was adhered to, and traceried windows were frequently introduced over doorways. Some of the carving, both at home and in France, is executed with great delicacy and spirit, but much of the foliage is of a very conventional form peculiar to the period. In running ornaments the stems frequently become more important than the leaves, thus carrying out the thin linear character of the style.
The English architects always showed a fondness for wooden roofs, and at this the latest period of Gothic these open timber constructions became very common. ”

“ The shafts of the piers, also, are so arranged and grouped and set at such heights as to declare at once the function they perform in supporting certain ribs and mouldings of the arches and vaults, and the tracery of the windows gives expression to the ideas which have guided its design. The constructional principles of the French architecture are especially distinct in the naked, but vigorous, churches of the early Cistercians in France. ”

“ A study of the building itself certainly tends to strengthen that impression. After a careful inspection of the structure, one feels it impossible to believe that the different portions of the work were other than the result of alteration and patching. It is admitted that the matter is rather puzzling; but we venture to make the following suggestions as to the history of the building.
The chancel was probably all built originally in the Norman style of its existing west half. Some accident overtook it, and the east half was demolished. ”

“ The style of architecture practised in England during the thirteenth century was introduced into Scotland, and the edifices erected here could scarcely be distinguished in character of design from those of the early English period in England. ”

“ A large part of the domestic buildings seems to have been erected within fifty or sixty years of the date of the foundation, as they are built in the transition style of the beginning of the thirteenth century. The church appears to have been in progress during the thirteenth century, as in 1242 the Bishop of St. Andrews, owing to the debts incurred in building the monastery, and other expenses, gave the canons permission to enjoy the revenues of the churches under their patronage—one of their number performing the office of vicar in each parish. ”

“ So little remains of the side walls that with regard to the windows and roof and height we are left to conjecture. There is no appearance of its having been higher than the nave. It most resembles a chancel on the west, and there is in Uyea, Shetland, a chapel with an adjunct, apparently original, in that position. If we may suppose that the west arch was the original entrance to the church, and that the south doorway was of later date, then this building may have been a sacristy, cotemporary with the south doorway. ”

“ In the early Irish churches it is very unusual not to have an east window. Probably no apse was without an east window.
As far as can be made out at present, there was no step to the chancel and no platform for the altar, except the inserted step and altar at Birsay. In some the chancel windows are singularly low, as at Wyre and Egilsey. No piscina remains, and only one sedile, but several ambries.
There are only four cases where we can judge of the pitch of the roofs. The Ness had a roof including about 85 degrees, Egilsey about 88 degrees, Enhallow the same, and Wyre about 95 degrees. ”

“ KINLOSS ABBEY, Morayshire.
This was one of the monastic establishments founded in Moray by David I. in order to extend the benefits of civilisation to the remoter regions under his sway. [191] The story told with reference to this foundation is similar to the legend regarding Holyrood. The king had lost his way in the wood while hunting, and was guided by a deer to an open place, where, as was afterwards revealed to him by the Virgin, he was to found a church in her honour. The abbey was founded in 1150, and colonised by King David’s favourite order of Cistercians from Melrose. ”