CHAPEL, DUNSTAFFNAGE CASTLE, Argyleshire.
Fig. 726.—Chapel, Dunstaffnage Castle. Interior.
A plan and detailed drawings of this first pointed chapel are given in connection with the description of the castle,[115] but the general view of the interior ([Fig. 726]) is now illustrated, in order more fully to explain the description above referred to. The ruin is densely covered with ivy, but the jambs of the chancel arch, enriched with rows of dog-tooth ornament, are distinctly visible (see Section). The arch is now built up, and the chancel is converted into a tomb-house. A section of the window jambs and shaft between is also shown in Fig. 726. This edifice is one of the few examples of enriched first pointed work to be found in the Western Highlands and Islands.
Another very interesting specimen of a first pointed church exists at Skipness, Kintyre, which is also described and illustrated in The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland.[116]
BUITTLE CHURCH, Kirkcudbrightshire.
A ruin, situated about three to four miles west from Dalbeattie. The original name was Kil-Ennan, that of Buittle being comparatively modern. A notice of the church occurs as early as 1275, when it was granted by Devorgilla to the monks of Sweetheart; and on the 16th July 1381, Pope Benedict XIII. confirms a charter by Thomas, Bishop of Galloway, granting the Church of St. Colmanel of Butyll to the Abbey of Sweetheart. We are informed that a new church was erected before the Reformation. This was, doubtless, part of the present ivy-clad ruin. The church and lands were annexed to the Crown in 1587.[117]
