RESTENNET PRIORY, Forfarshire.
The remaining towers of the group above enumerated are all square on plan, and certain of them are connected with churches, and form a part of them. In these respects, therefore, they differ considerably from the towers of Abernethy and Brechin. They were all probably built during the twelfth century. Possibly Restennet is an exception. It is the only one of the square towers which has very marked features of a pre-Norman character. The outside dimensions of the Tower of Restennet ([Fig. 145]) are 15 feet 11 inches from north to south by 15 feet 6 inches from east to west, and the walls are 2 feet 8 inches in thickness.
There is, on the ground level of the tower, a narrow doorway in the south side, and a wide archway into the church through the east wall. There is also a wide archway in the west wall, opening into what has been a nave, added at a later date; but this opening appears to have been cut through at a late period.
The south doorway ([Fig. 146]) is 2 feet 4 inches wide by about 8 feet high. The soffit of the arch is cut out of single stones. The style of masonry used in the construction of the doorway is peculiar. The thickness of the wall is made up of three courses, the two outer ones being large slabs set on edge, and the interior course being built with smaller stones from a different quarry. The latter are of red and the former of grey sandstone. The outer and inner stones forming the lintel are hollowed out with a semi-circular arch opening. Round the exterior of the doorway there is a raised margin, about eight inches in breadth, with small projection, similar to the margin of the door at Abernethy. Except this ancient feature, there is no other attempt at decoration.
The arch in the east wall ([Fig. 147]) is 8 feet 4 inches wide, and is stated by Mr. Galloway[139] to have been 15 feet 8 inches high from the original floor level to the soffit. The space comprised within the tower
Fig. 145.—Restennet Priory. Plan.
was by this archway included in the original church, which opened into it exactly like the archway of the tower at Dunning Church (q.v.), compared with which, however, this opening has a very archaic appearance.
Fig. 146.—Restennet Priory. South Doorway of Tower.
There are no floors in the tower, and no stair or means of access to the upper story, and the tower stands open from the ground to the apex of the spire.
Above the arches just described, the tower contains two stories ([Fig. 148]). In the first story there is a small opening on the east side, about 1 foot 8 inches wide and 4 feet 8 inches high, contained within the space of the choir roof; and on the south side there is another opening, about half this size. A small round opening, a few inches wide, in the west wall ([Fig. 149]) completes the lights on this story. The highest story, which is separated from the one below by a string course, contains an opening with a straight-sided arch on each face, and each of these openings has an external back-set fillet or margin.
How the tower was originally finished it is now impossible to say; but the string course above the second story is the present termination of the original work. The tower has a decided taper of about two feet in the height.
The building above the second story is probably a work of the fifteenth century, but there appears to be no written account of the erection of the spire. With the exception of the tower, no part of the original Church of Restennet remains, but a fragment of a return wall at the base of the south-east angle of the tower shows that it was connected with some building.
The existing ruin (see [Fig. 145.]) consists of a choir to the east of the tower. The south wall of this choir probably occupies the original position of the south wall of the ancient church. Assuming that the tower was in the centre of the west wall of the choir, the original church would be about 14 feet wide, and possibly entered through the tower by the narrow doorway in the south side.
The present choir is a first-pointed structure. It is roofless, but otherwise fairly entire, and measures about 67 feet long by 21 feet 6 inches wide internally. A part of the centre of the north wall appears to have been taken down and rebuilt at a late period. In a plan of the priory, made by Dr. Jamieson of Forfar, and preserved in the Hutton Collection (Advocates’ Library), the church is shown as being ruinous in 1796. The restoration which has since then taken place probably accounts for the absence of the buttresses and of the hood mouldings of two of the rebuilt lancet windows on the north side (see Figs. 148 and 149). On the south side the buttresses have all been pulled down, but otherwise the wall remains intact, with first-pointed corbels along the top of the wall. In the east wall, the apex of which is gone ([Fig. 150]), there were
Fig. 147.—Restennet Priory. Archway in East Wall of Tower. [140]
three lancet windows, which had banded nook shafts in the interior, and a simple splay externally. At the east end, on the south side, there is a piscina ([Fig. 151]), a sedilia recess, a locker, and a tomb of late work. On the north side there has been a similar recessed tomb, now built up. The font shown in [Fig. 152] is lying inside the choir, but its base is gone. It measures 2 feet 4 inches in external width by 1 foot 9 inches inside, and 18 inches high, with a square hole in the centre. It appears to be of late date.
The east wall has angle pilaster buttresses, with scarcely any projection to the east, but having a few inches projection to the north and
Fig. 148.—Restennet Priory. View from North-East.
south respectively. The south wall of the church appears, from a return and tuskings at the east end, to have continued further eastwards. In the south wall, adjoining the tower, there is a plain, round, arched doorway. As will be seen from the plan, the present choir is not in the line of the centre of the tower. Probably the existence of earlier monastic buildings on the south side may have prevented extension in that direction; and so, in order to get the width required for the new choir, it was necessary to extend the building northwards. From the presence of the sloping skew recess on the west face of the tower, it is obvious that the nave, which now no longer exists, and is only indicated by this roof mark, was built nearly in continuation of the walls of the choir. In Dr. Jamieson’s time, when the foundations of the nave existed, it was so, and is shown in his drawings running westwards to the west wall of the cloister, a distance of about 59 feet. The plan shows that the west enclosing wall is broken off just at the point where the west wall of the nave joined it.
Fig. 149.—Restennet Priory. View from North-West.
On the south side of the tower and choir there are raglets, indicating where the monastic buildings have abutted against them. Of these buildings all that exist are the boundary walls, shown on plan. These contain a doorway to the south, and another to the west. They are quite plain, with segmental arched heads. In front of the west door lies a flat tombstone, probably
Fig. 150.—Restennet Priory. Interior of East End.
the one referred to by Dr. Jamieson as being dated 1553. Dr. Jamieson further mentions that the courtyard was paved, and that the present trees and shrubs, which encumber and confuse the place, are recent. In describing the situation of the priory, he says that it stands on ground which “juts out into a lake, or loch, of the same name. This, although now drained in part, has nearly surrounded it. There is a small neck on the west, where it is said there was a deep ditch and a drawbridge.”
Fig. 151.—Restennet Priory. Piscina.
The date of the foundation of the priory is not known, but it is recorded that David I. granted to the Prior and Canons 20s. yearly from the rents of the burgh of Monros, as well as the teinds of these rents.[141] The monastery was dedicated to St. Peter, and was of the Order of St. Augustine. Between 1159 and 1163 it was attached to Jedburgh by Malcolm IV.
After the Reformation, it continued to be the parish church of Forfar, where, says Dr. Jamieson, there was only a private chapel, “an aisle of the old church, till it was pulled down a few weeks ago, as they are about to build a new church.”
Fig. 152.—Restennet Priory. Font.
Further particulars of the history of Restennet, and of its early Celtic importance, with a very minute and illustrated description, will be found in the Archæologia Scotica, Vol. V., Part 2. There can be no doubt of the great antiquity of the tower; and, as pointed out by Mr. Galloway in the above paper, its features associate it with Irish architecture. It may, therefore, be classed along with the towers of Abernethy and Brechin; but it is of a ruder, and possibly earlier, type than they are.