Fig. 754.—The Abbey of Inchcolm. West Side of Cloister.
still overhangs on the west side (see [Fig. 741]). In the east wall is a destroyed piscina, which no doubt adjoined the altar. The entrance archway has had on the jambs a half-round shaft and two splays on each side (see [Fig. 750]). A few feet of it remain, together with the base (see [Fig. 750]), which is of late design, and might correspond with the date of Richard of Aberdeen, by whom the lady chapel is said to have been built.
It has been mentioned that the cloister walk was continued across the north side of the square by a one-story structure. This is now demolished; but, from the foundations which remain (see [Fig. 737]), it has evidently consisted of a thin parapet wall, strengthened with five buttresses. The passage was about 11 feet wide, and had a wide arch in the solid wall at each end opening into it ([Fig. 754]). The roof was probably entirely of wood, and there is a ragglet cut in the stone work at each end, which shows that the slope of the roof was flat. These ragglets are rudely cut into the masonry, and that at the west end passes across the corbel of a projecting chimney. This passage would thus appear to have been a late addition.
The cellars, stores, &c., which are frequently in the west range of the cloister buildings, have in this instance been erected in a wing to the south-east. This wing ([Fig. 755]) is two stories in height. On the basement floor (see [Fig. 737]) it contains towards the east end a vaulted cellar, about 50 feet in length by 13 feet in width, lighted by loops in the south wall. At the east end a large oven is built out towards the north side, and had a room over it. On the upper floor (see [Fig. 745]) there has been a series of five or six offices, two containing large fireplaces, and one an oven in the angle. At the west end (see [Fig. 747]) the building has been carried up a story higher, and had a wheel stair in the re-entering angle. An entrance passage to the interior of the monastery passed through two archways under the north-west portion, and led to the entrance tower near the south-west corner of the cloister.
The south or exterior wall of the above range of offices has been strengthened with buttresses, but, being close to the sea, the south wall has been considerably damaged, and only the basement now survives.
As above mentioned, the south-west tower of the cloister (see [Fig. 747]) appears to be an addition of probably the fifteenth or sixteenth century, when, indeed, the most of the upper floor of the south and west walls would appear to have been erected. The corbels at the parapet of the tower have the character of those of the castles of the period. A window in the south-west gable (see [Fig. 747]) is round headed, and has a hood moulding with carved terminals, which look like sixteenth century work. The pulpit is projected on two buttresses, the space between which forms a recess for a seat on the ground floor. The projection for the pulpit has the appearance of being an addition. The large, square-headed upper