Fig. 289.—Stobo Church. Norman Doorway.
structure was the entire destruction of the Norman chancel arch at the restoration of the building in 1868, “in order to insert a modern pointed one.”—(Transactions of the Aberdeen Ecclesiological Society, 1887, p. 6.)
The building ([Fig. 287]) consists of a nave about 40 feet long by 18 feet 7 inches wide, with a chancel about 24 feet 4 inches long by 16 feet wide, thus making the total interior length about 67 feet 4 inches. There is a tower at the west end, about 20 feet square over the walls, and 11 feet by 9 feet 6 inches inside. The tower has originally opened into the church with what appears to have been a round arch, which is now partly concealed by a gallery and other erections. This opening has been reduced in size, as shown on the plan, to a doorway about three feet wide. The doorway is pointed, and of old date.
As the whole building is harled or rough cast on the outside and plastered on the inside, it is impossible to say definitely whether the tower is Norman or later. The work of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries consists of the south porch ([Fig. 288]), built up against the Norman doorway ([Fig. 289]), and a north aisle or chapel, which opened from the nave with a round arch, now built up. This chapel, which is ruined, was barrel vaulted. The windows in the south wall are also of this period. The mullions and tracery of those of the nave are modern, as is also a monument erected against the interior of the east wall, which may possibly conceal a Norman east window. The four-light window in the south wall of the chancel ([Fig. 290]), although of this late period, is quaint and pleasing, the small circle in the apex giving it quite a touch of originality.
Fig. 290.—Stobo Church. Window in South Wall of Chancel.
A round arched recess for a monument in the north side of the chancel also belongs to this period. It has contained a coat of arms, which is effaced.