Fig. 1243.—Stirling Parish Church. Interior of Nave from North Aisle, looking West.
central tower was contemplated, if not built. There was, over the crossing, an upper room known as the king’s room, from which the service could be seen. It was destroyed about the middle of this century. The room was reached by a wheel staircase in the north wall, where the door leading to it is still to be seen. This staircase is now filled with the chimney flues of a heating apparatus. The bay between the tower piers is arched with round arches, which are now almost concealed, this part of the church being occupied with modern staircases, vestries, and gallery. A round arch also spanned the church between the eastmost of the two piers of the crossing. The latter arch was taken down about the year
Fig. 1244.—Stirling Parish Church. Piers, Caps, and Arch Mouldings in Choir.
1869, thus destroying the room above, and the pier was enlarged. From the enlarged part a pointed arch was thrown across, thus sacrificing the beauty and fitness of the church, in order to introduce a small gallery. About the same time the interior stone work was, unfortunately, redressed.
Fig. 1247, together with the view from south-west, above referred to, gives some idea of the effect of the apse and the picturesque appearance of the church as seen from the north-east. The south side of the building
Fig. 1245.—Stirling Castle. Oriel in Great Hall.
has been lamentably injured by a kind of great porch or transept erected in the centre, which gives access to the two churches into which the edifice is now divided.
Of the building of the east end or choir interesting particulars are given in the Register of Dunfermline. In the year 1507 an agreement was entered into between James Beaton, Abbot of Dunfermline, and the Town Council and community of Stirling, wherein it is stated that the latter having “takin apon hand to big and compleitlie edifye, and end ane gud and sufficient queyr conformand to the body of the peroch kirk of the said burght,” they were to deliver to the abbot the “body” of the parish church (that is the west end or nave) to be used by the Convent as a “queir ay and quhill the said queyr now to be biggit, be fully and compleitlie biggit and endit.” Under this arrangement the Convent was to