Fig. 1466.—Inchaffray Abbey.
Plan of Doorway.
The fields around the abbey are now all cultivated, and the ruins are enclosed with stone dykes, as shown by double lines on the Plan (Fig. [1464]); so that the few fragments which remain are now properly protected. Within the dykes almost nothing is visible but a dense mass of trees and brushwood, with mounds of ruins in the utmost confusion. A gable at the north-west corner stands entire (Fig. [1465]), with a round-arched vault adjoining, about 21 feet long by 10 feet 6 inches wide and 10 feet high. This is one of the
Fig. 1467.—Inchaffray Abbey. Interior of North Gable.
cellars of the western range of buildings. The walls of this range are fairly entire along their whole length for a height of 7 or 8 feet. The south end wall is also standing for about the same height. The length of this range from north to south is about 97 feet 7 inches. It is probable that the adjoining cellar to the south is entire, but the place is so covered with vegetation that little can be ascertained. The doorway entering from the cloister to the north-west cellar is undoubtedly of an early date. Not much of it remains, but enough to enable the Plan (Fig. [1466]) to be made. The nook shaft, a fragment of the capital of which exists, is not later than the beginning of the thirteenth century.
The high gable adjoining (Fig. [1467]) is certainly in part at least of a later date; the upper part and the chimney, with its corbelled cope, being of the sixteenth or seventeenth century. On the first floor there has been a large fireplace, the flue of which is still partly visible (see Fig. [1467]). A part of the north wall of the cloister stands near the gable. This was part of the south wall of the church (see Plan), and the greater portion of the church would thus be situated outside the present enclosing dyke on the north side.