The remaining portion (Fig. [1324]) consists of a tower about 20 feet square and about 40 feet in height. The basement floor is vaulted, and contains a doorway which entered from the west end of the church, and small loops in each of the south and west sides. That the church extended eastward from the tower is apparent from the fragments of the side walls and the mark of the roof, which still exist on the east side of the tower (see Fig. [1325]). A wheel stair is carried up in the south-west angle of the tower, which gave access to three stories on the upper floors. The first floor contained a small rectangular window to the south. The floor above had a fireplace and a south window with pointed and cusped arch-head
Fig. 1325.—Kilmun Church. View from South-East.
(Fig. [1325]). Over this was an attic, now ruined. From the above fireplace and ornamental window, we may perhaps assume that the tower was the abode of the provost, and from the strength with which it is built, and general resemblance to a keep, the tower was doubtless designed to form a place of strength in case of need.
ALLOWAY KIRK, Ayrshire.
This old structure, made famous by the genius of Burns, stands in its churchyard, surrounded with ancient trees, on the banks of the Doon, about three miles southwards from Ayr. The burying-ground contains many strangely sculptured tombstones, and a plain slab marks the grave of the poet’s father. Mention of Alloway occurs in 1236. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, when James VI. refounded and enlarged the Chapel Royal of Stirling, he annexed to it the Church of Alloway in Kyle, to form the prebend of one of the canons of that collegiate chapel. In 1690 the parish of Alloway was annexed to that of Ayr, and the church allowed to become ruinous.
Fig. 1326.—Alloway Kirk. Plan.
The building (Fig. [1326]) is 40 feet long by 20 feet broad internally. It is evident that the walls are ancient, but owing to alterations it is difficult to assign the building to any definite date. The principal feature is the two-light window (Fig. [1327]), enclosed within one arch in the east gable, but this might be of almost any period before the seventeenth century. The belfry is massive and by no means without good effect, but it is clearly a post-Reformation structure.
On the outside of the south wall an old stoup or benitier has been let into the wall, but what purpose it can have served is far from clear. The church has evidently been used for worship in the seventeenth century, but is now a roofless ruin.