ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH, Gullane, Haddingtonshire.
The village of Gullane lies in the parish of Dirleton, about four miles north-west from Drem Station, and half-a-mile from the sea.
The old church of St. Andrew is now a roofless ruin, thickly clad with ivy, and standing in the middle of the ancient churchyard. The church was bestowed early in the thirteenth century on Dryburgh Abbey by Sir William de Vaux, and in 1446 it was erected into a collegiate institution by Sir Walter de Haliburton. Both these knights were the proprietors of the Castle of Dirleton in the vicinity.
The structure ([Fig. 299]) consisted of nave and chancel, the chancel being entered from the nave by a semicircular chancel arch, almost the only remnant of the edifice of the twelfth century which survives.
Fig. 299.—Gullane Church. Plan.
The chancel as it now stands is 35 feet in length by 15 feet 6 inches in width internally. The eastern portion is a comparatively recent addition, and has a square east wall, but it is believed that the chancel formerly terminated towards the east with an apse. Part of the old south wall of the chancel, extending to about 20 feet in length, still remains. It contains two pointed windows, with late mouldings on the exterior, probably fragments of the restoration of the fifteenth century, at the time when the church was made collegiate. These windows have been reduced to mere slits by being built up with slabs in the interior. This filling up was probably inserted when the place was converted into a burial-ground for a private family, in order to prevent entrance through the windows.
The south wall of the nave is still about 72 feet in length, but the north wall is reduced to about 43 feet long. The west end is gone, and the nave has been divided up into private burial-places. The windows which remain in the south wall of the nave have been much altered in Presbyterian times, having had flat lintels, &c., introduced.
The chancel archway ([Fig. 300], [301]) is 8 feet in width. It has square jambs on both sides of the wall, and a central half shaft on each jamb of the opening. The caps of these shafts (see [Fig. 301.]) are fairly preserved, and
Fig. 300.—Gullane Church. West Side of Chancel Arch.
show a form of volutes, with a cabled necking and a three-sided abacus, which was continued as a string course along the walls on each side.
The arch has been built up, but the two plain orders of the east side are visible, and the outer order on the west side ([Fig. 300]), carved with a bold chevron and finished with a three-sided hood, is well preserved. There can be no doubt as to this part of the structure being of Norman origin, and the north wall of the nave has a three-sided string course, which seems to indicate the same date, but the remainder of the structure
Fig. 301.—Gullane Church. East Side of Chancel Arch.
has been greatly altered. The earth inside the choir has been filled up to near the caps of the chancel arch. A round arch in the north wall of the chancel appears to belong to a side door at the original level of the floor.
An “aisle” or wing has been built out to the north from the nave. It has been entered by a large semicircular arch from the nave, and has had a large north window, but these openings are now built up. This erection seems to be of about the time of the Reformation.