Fig. 309.—Abercorn Church. From South-East.
identified as of Norman date. This Norman doorway has the usual nook shafts, with cushion caps, and the lintel within the round arch is square. The tympanum is filled with stones, arranged in zig-zag patterns, and is one of the few examples in Scotland of a tympanum filled with a shield containing ornament of any kind.
Several burial-places have been added on the south side of the church since Reformation times. ([Fig. 309.]) These can generally be identified by the coats of arms they bear.
To the north-east of the church there has been erected, probably in the eighteenth century, a house of two stories as a place for the lord of the manor, from which he obtained access to his private gallery, erected about that time at the east end of the choir, which it still disfigures.
In the churchyard there are many interesting tombstones, and amongst them are two stone monuments of rather unusual form. ([Fig. 310.])
Fig. 310.—Abercorn Church. Monuments.
These consist of solid stones, doubtless intended to be laid over graves, triangular in section, with the ridge rising to the centre. One has the sides carved with figures of fish-scale pattern, arranged in rows; the other has the scales of a squarer shape. The ends are broken. They are good specimens of the hog-backed form of tombstones.