The church (see [Fig. 632]) was cruciform, having a nave, with a north aisle only; transepts, with eastern aisles; and a short aisleless presbytery. The length of the nave was about 120 feet, and the width about 35 feet between the walls. The transepts were about 70 feet long from north to south by about 38 feet in width within the walls, and the total internal length of the church was about 190 feet. The whole structure was of one period, being entirely of first pointed or thirteenth century work; so much at least can be surmised from the Plan and from the west doorway ([Fig. 633]). The doorway projects about 9 inches from the face of the wall, and in the ingoing had five shafts in each jamb, all detached except one, and there was also a shaft in the outer angles of the projection in front of the west wall. In the nooks between the shafts there are smaller beads or shafts, all treated with separate caps. On either side of the outer shafts the dog-tooth ornament occurs. The jamb mouldings are much better preserved than those of the arch, the former having been buried in the ruins for centuries, while the latter, being within the reach of mischievous hands, have been very much defaced. An idea of the character of the mouldings will be obtained from the enlarged section (see [Fig. 633]); there was only one enrichment, and that was the dog-tooth. It will be observed that the inner moulding of the arch does not come to a point, but has a kind of flat keystone introduced, although the outer mouldings appear to have met in the usual way. A few bases of the shafts of a wall arcade remain against the south wall of the nave. An angle buttress at the north-east corner of the transept indicates later work, probably inserted here owing to the failure of the original buttresses, which are flat, and have little projection to support the vaulting.
The cloister, which lay on the south side of the church, was about 80 feet square. On the east side of the cloister, in a line with the south transept, there occurred first the slype and then the chapter house. The latter was a small apartment of about 21 feet square, which was, as usual, vaulted, and had an octagonal centre pillar.
A long, narrow building, which was doubtless the refectory, occupied the south side of the cloister. It measured about 70 feet long by 25 feet wide. To the east of this there are situated a cottage and an outhouse; the latter is certainly quite modern, and the cottage may have been a part of the monastery.
About 180 feet east from the chapter house a long range of buildings extended for upwards of 250 feet in a north and south direction; but as these are fragmentary, and as the detached buildings of a monastery were not conformable to a general plan, it is needless to attempt to define these further than to point out that the upper story of the south-east building was a dovecot, the walls of which are entire to a height of about 20 feet. The range of buildings, of which the dovecot forms the end next the river, extends, in its present condition, for about 120 feet westwards.
Fig. 633.—Cambuskenneth Abbey. West Doorway.
