DUNDRENNAN ABBEY, Kirkcudbrightshire.
The greater part of this very interesting structure has been demolished, but what remains is so fine as to make one regret all the more the hard usage the demolished portions have met with.
The abbey stood in a small, but deep, valley on a few acres of comparatively level ground lying on the west side of a little stream called the Abbey Burn, about a mile and a-half from the sea. The edifice is concealed in this remote and buried situation, and is with difficulty discovered after traversing a hilly road of six or seven miles south-east from Kirkcudbright. But when found, the quiet and secluded site, and the peaceful aspect of the grey ruins, surrounded with ancient trees, are very charming.
The monastery has been of considerable extent ([Fig. 351]). The church was large, being 209 feet from east to west by 108 feet from north to south of the transept, and comprised a great nave with double aisles, a choir without aisles, north and south transepts with eastern aisles, and a tower and spire 200 feet high over the crossing. The monastic buildings which surrounded the cloister garth were of the usual description, and, to judge from the remains of the chapter house, were of exceptionally fine design.
Of all these extensive structures the great nave and the tower and spire have almost entirely disappeared, and there now survive only portions of the north and south transept and choir, a beautiful fragment of the chapter house, some walls of cellars on the west side of the cloister garth, and other walls containing a few carved caps which show how fine the design of the cloisters must have been.
The abbey was founded by David I. about 1142, and was colonised by Cistercians from Rieval in Yorkshire. Its history is little known. Robert I. and David II. both conferred lands upon it. In 1568, after her flight from Langside, Queen Mary was welcomed at Dundrennan by Abbot Edward Maxwell, brother of Lord Maxwell. The abbey was then entire, and contained all its inmates. The queen embarked for England from Port Mary, at the mouth of the Abbey Burn.
In 1587 James VI. annexed Dundrennan to the Royal Chapel of Stirling, and the Maxwells became the heritable bailies of the lands.[190] The ruins now belong to the Maitlands of Dundrennan. It is not known how the structure was reduced to its present dilapidated condition. By some it is stated to have been destroyed by fire, while others attribute its condition to neglect. It has undoubtedly met with the usual fate of
Fig. 351.—Dundrennan Abbey. Plan.
our old abbeys, and was used as a quarry till 1842, when it was put in repair by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, and it is now in fair preservation.
The nave of the church (see [Fig. 351.]) was 134 feet long within the walls, and comprised eight bays. The central division was 31 feet wide,
Fig. 352.—Dundrennan Abbey. Western Doorway.
and each aisle 16 feet wide, giving a total width of 63 feet internally. Of this part of the church only portions of the west end and south wall remain. The west wall contains the original western doorway, which is of simple Transition design. The doorway had three nook shafts besides the jambs, and the arches are in four orders of plain mouldings ([Fig. 352]). The caps, which have square abaci, are peculiar from the large quantity of very small nail head ornaments with which they are decorated ([Fig. 353]). The inner mouldings were renewed by the Government in 1842. The west wall retains the responds of the main piers of the nave, and a portion of one of the piers, being the westmost of the south arcade of the nave, also exists, both showing a
Fig. 353.—Cap of Western Doorway.
Fig. 354.—Dundrennan Abbey. From South-West.
bold early pointed section (see A on Plan). There were seven piers on each side of the nave, besides the west responds and the piers of the crossing. A good deal of early pointed work is also carried into
Fig. 355.—Dundrennan Abbey. Wall Shafts in Clerestory of Choir.
the transept, but it is clear, from the architecture of the building, that the transepts have been originally erected in an earlier style, and that the first pointed work is the result of alteration. This is especially apparent in the north transept, the external walls of which, on the west and north, are distinctly Norman, in character ([Fig. 354]). The round arched windows (with square recesses or nooks for shafts on the outside), the broad buttresses with small projections, and the form of the caps are quite characteristic of that style. The same remarks apply to the south transept so far as the outer walls survive. In the choir also the Norman character of the early work is distinctly seen. Only portions of the side walls of the choir remain, the east end having been entirely demolished. In the upper or clerestory windows of the side walls are found very characteristic examples of late Norman work. The large plain round openings of the clerestory and the triple shafts with Norman caps and corbels ([Fig. 355]) are unmistakable features. The choir and transept were apparently at first completed in this style late in the twelfth century, and sometime in the thirteenth century it has been desired to build the nave on a larger scale. It has then been also resolved to rebuild the interior of the transept, including the piers at the crossing, in the same style as
Fig. 356.—Arch of Doorway in Choir, and of Arcades in Cloisters.
the nave, so as to bring the transept as far as possible into harmony with the new design. The pointed work is evidently of an early character (see [Fig. 354.]). The squat round-headed windows of the clerestory, with their broad internal splay occurring above the pointed windows of the triforium, indicate a period of Transition. The use of the square abacus is also general throughout the work. The very acute form of the main arches of the transepts has probably arisen from the three bays having to be fitted into the space between the old north and south end walls, and at the same time requiring to be carried up as high as the main arches of the new nave. The piers of the transept are 13 feet from column to column, while those of the nave were about 16 feet from column to column. The outer walls of the east aisles of the transepts, which were part of the original Norman structure, were not renewed at the time of the above alteration, but they have now been demolished, only fragments being left, from which, however, the form of the vaults can be inferred.
Fig. 357.—Dundrennan Abbey. Monument in North Transept.
The smaller details of the eastern part of the building are greatly destroyed. The sedilia and what seems to have been a fine monument in the choir are broken in pieces. A door has been formed in the north and south side walls of the choir leading into the east aisle of the transepts. There are evident additions made, probably during this century, when the
Fig. 358.—Dundrennan Abbey. Plan and Details of West Wall of Chapter House.
piers of the tower were rebuilt. The doorway into the south transept aisle ([Fig. 356]) is distinguished by a large trefoiled head, enriched with small nail head ornaments similar to those in the west doorway, but there
Fig. 359.—Dundrennan Abbey. Exterior of West Wall of Chapter House.
is some doubt whether this is not a restoration. It will be observed that the section of the piers of the nave and transept, and also the piers of the crossing (see [Fig. 351.]), bear a close resemblance to those of Sweetheart Abbey. But the forms here are earlier, the fillet on the outer angle being absent at Dundrennan, though present at Sweetheart.
In the north wall of the aisle of the north transept, and in a round arched recess ([Fig. 357]), lies the sculptured effigy of a knight wearing a suit of chain armour, and with legs crossed. This is said to be the
Fig. 360.—Dundrennan Abbey. Ornaments over Windows of Chapter House.
statue of Alan, Lord of Galloway, who was interred in the abbey in 1234. There seems also to have been a fine monument in the choir, and numerous portions of cusped and carved work are to be seen piled up in the nave, which may be fragments of this or some other ruined structure of the same nature.
The cloister garth is on the south side of the nave, and measures about 105 feet by 102 feet. The walls surrounding the cloisters are for the most part old. In the north-east angle is the ancient doorway to the nave, and in the north-west angle a more modern doorway. On the east
Fig. 361.—Dundrennan Abbey. Interior of West Wall of Chapter House.
side, adjoining the south transept, is the slype from which a wide door (doubtless modernised) leads into the transept. To the south of the slype stood the chapter house, which must have been a very beautiful building, measuring 51 feet from east to west by 34 feet from north to south internally. From some fragments of shafts which remain, and from the responds against the west wall, it appears to have been vaulted in three spans from north to south, with four bays from east to west, but the vaults have now entirely disappeared. The front wall next the cloisters, however, fortunately survives ([Fig. 358]).
It is a splendid specimen of first pointed architecture ([Fig. 359]). In the centre is the doorway, and on each side a window, divided into two openings by a central shaft. The doorway and windows were, as usual, designed to remain open, so that the brethren in the cloisters might hear all that passed in the chapter house.
The features are all beautifully designed, and the details are of the purest and most elegant forms (see [Fig. 358.]), the whole being enriched with finely carved dog-tooth and other ornaments.
Fig. 362.—Dundrennan Abbey. Caps in Cloisters.
In the arch mouldings a very profuse employment of the fillet is noticeable. The panels in the tympanum over the double arch of the windows, both in the exterior and interior, are filled in with plain, but finely designed, geometric figures ([Fig. 360]), and the simple bold cusps of the doorway have been carved with foliaceous scroll work, now almost obliterated by decay.
Internally the design of this front wall ([Fig. 361]) corresponds almost exactly with that of the outside, but is, perhaps, even more effective from containing the vaulting shafts and the springing of the broken groins.
The west wall of the chapter house is altogether a very exquisite piece of pointed work, and was probably executed just before the disturbances of the end of the thirteenth century, which interrupted, and for a time stopped, all architecture in Scotland. The style is clearly later than the early pointed work of the transept, the round abaci and the filleted mouldings contrasting with the square abaci and the pointed or round mouldings of the transept.
On the west side of the cloisters is a row of ruinous cellars, still partly vaulted, but not very accessible. On the south side are the door to what may have been a large chamber, probably the refectory, and some remains of domestic buildings. (See [Fig. 361.])
The north and east walls of the cloister still retain the remains of some sharply cut caps, of what has been an arcade, with arches about 3 feet 6 inches apart. The designs have evidently been very varied and full of spirit ([Fig. 362]), but it is scarcely possible to find one sufficiently well preserved to enable a complete sketch to be made.
The monuments of this abbey are not numerous, but they are interesting. In the recess of the north side doorway of the west end (now built up) is a large figure of an abbot, with his crozier, standing on the prostrate body of a man. This is known as the Abbot’s Stone. Another monument is called the Cellarer’s Stone, and shows a figure standing on serpents. It is dated 1480. There is also a monument containing a female figure, with an inscription partly defaced, but bearing the date of 1440. A plain monument to Frater Blackmore is probably of the fourteenth century.