Fig. 635.—Culross Abbey. Plan.
Considerable remains of the church and abbey buildings are still standing, either in a ruinous or greatly altered condition. Extensive alterations were made on the fabric in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to adapt certain portions of the old buildings to modern purposes, and the eastern end of the edifice is now used as the parish church. There have been, as already stated, an east and a west church, separated from each other by a central tower rising solidly from the ground. The tower and the east church are still entire, but of the west church only the south wall and the start of the north wall at the tower now remain, as shown on Plan. Both churches have been of about the same dimensions—viz., 78 feet by about 21 feet 6 inches wide, and both are without aisles.
The south wall of the west church has some indications of transition work, the masonry being arranged in the cube courses peculiar to early work. Towards the west end (in the gable of the manse) there is a round arched doorway, now built up, but it contains very little indication of style. This was, doubtless, the usual entrance to the nave from the west end of the cloister. The south wall is about 7 or 8 feet high from the level of the nave floor, and more than twice that height from the level of the cloisters. The windows were above the top of the wall, as is seen at the east end adjoining the tower, where there exist the springing and jamb of a window, with continuous mouldings both on the north and south sides. These are, undoubtedly, fragments of fifteenth or sixteenth century work. Slezer, in his views, shows a series of six or seven round-headed windows at above level along the south side of the west church. It is sometimes conjectured that these may have been Norman, but certainly the existing jambs of the eastmost windows above referred to are not so. Slezer, we may remark, is not to be depended on for accuracy of details. It is said that these windows were taken down for materials to build dykes with by the late parish minister, Dr. Erskine.
The position of the west end of this church is a matter of conjecture, but it is almost certain that the present modern entrance gateway is built on its site. The projecting part of wall at X on Plan has a large bead on the corner, and it is clearly the corner of the south-west buttress of the nave, with the base mouldings returned round it.
The lower story of the tower is much older than the portion above it. This is evident from the nature of the building, and also from the door and window openings in it. Entering from the west church, a low doorway, 5 feet wide, leads into the tower; it is late first pointed in detail, round arched, or very slightly pointed in some of its orders. At each side of this doorway there are arched openings, which recall the recesses on each side of the chancel arch at Tynninghame Church. That on the west side is a low, plain pointed opening, about 3 feet wide, now built up. Between the centre door and the southmost of these built up openings there is a pointed stoup, the lower part of which is buried by a grave mound. Above the doorway, and beneath the sloping marks of the roof of the west church, a wide semicircular window opens into the tower—a singular feature not easily understood. The doorways in the interior of the tower are all of late work—similar to that of the sixteenth century in Scotland. [Fig. 636] shows the upper part of the interior of the west door. The style of the work is clearly late. The initials A. M. may stand for the name of Mallet, as there seem to be three mallets on the shield.
Fig. 636.—Culross Abbey. Interior of Doorway of Tower.
The tower ([Fig. 637]) measures 84 feet high to the top of the parapet; it has been operated on at various times. The projecting round staircase-turret is an addition of, perhaps, the fifteenth century; the lower part of the tower, as is evident from the west doorway, is probably of the thirteenth century. It is groin vaulted at the first story, as shown on Plan. This vault, and all above, are of sixteenth century work, with the exception of the upper part above the cornice, which dates from this century. The old finishing of the tower is shown by Slezer to have been carried out with a cape house and bartisan like the pele towers, or as shown at the churches of Torphichen, Dysart, and Dundee.