This very interesting church was founded by Archibald the Grim, Earl of Douglas, in 1398. He was proprietor of the great Castle of Bothwell in the vicinity, and he dedicated the church to St. Bride, his patron saint. The establishment was to consist of a provost and eight
Fig. 925.—St. Bride’s Collegiate Church. View from South-East.
prebendaries. In order to provide suitable accommodation, he added a choir to the existing parish church, and granted to the establishment sufficient resources. In this church the unfortunate Duke of Rothesay was married to the Earl’s daughter Marjory, in the year 1400. The old College Church is now attached to a new and larger modern parish church which adjoins it on the west, but the College Church is not now used for service. The structure is a simple oblong chamber ([Fig. 924]), 55 feet in length by 22 feet in width internally, with a sacristy on the north side 14 feet long by 10 feet wide. The church, externally divided by buttresses, has four bays ([Fig. 925]), with a series of pointed windows in the south wall and three windows in the north wall. The east end is square, and has one large pointed window with drop arch. The entrance doorway ([Fig. 926]) is in the south wall in the second bay from the west end, under a window. The arch of the doorway is remarkable from being elliptic in form. The mouldings of the arch are bold, but they are destroyed on the jambs. A label mitring into a string course at top runs round the arch. The windows are deeply splayed both inside and out, but the tracery with which they were doubtless filled is now wanting. The arch of the east window springs
Fig. 926.—St. Bride’s Collegiate Church. Entrance Doorway.