Fig. 1522.—St. Bridget’s Church, Dalgety.
Plan of First Floor.
from its style (Fig. [1521]), was probably erected by him about the beginning of the seventeenth century. The upper floor is reached by a projecting octagonal stair turret on the north side. The interior of the walls of the principal room on the first floor (Fig. [1522]) is built with ashlar work, and the walls are divided into moulded panels in stone work and a stone cornice runs round the room.
A wide aperture in the east wall of the room opens into the church at a high level, and no doubt gave access to a gallery at the west end. The belfry is placed on the west gable of this room and still contains a small bell, the chain for ringing which has cut a deep groove in the wall outside. The small room at the south-west angle contains a fireplace. There has been another gallery at the east end of the church. The outside staircase for access to it still remains. A good monumental slab is built into the north wall of the church, bearing date 1540.
ST. JOHN’S CHURCH, Dalry, Kirkcudbrightshire.[229]
The village of Dalry or St. John’s Town stands on the east bank of the Dee, in the northern or Glenkens district of Kirkcudbrightshire, and is about ten miles north from Parton Railway Station. The old parish church was removed in 1829-31, when a new church was erected on the old site.
An old burial vault formerly attached to the church, and known as the Kenmure burial aisle, has, however, been preserved, which (Fig. [1523]), with its crow-stepped gable and large antiquely grilled window and panelled coat of arms, forms an interesting relic of the seventeenth century.
This adjunct to the old church formed a projection on its south side, and measures internally 17 feet in length by 14 feet 2 inches in width (Fig. [1524]). The entrance from the church, which was about 7 feet wide, was by a plain rubble archway, which is now built up. The doorway in the west wall is square-lintelled, and 2 feet 8 inches wide. The window in the south wall is also square-lintelled, and the iron grill appears to have been built in along with the wall. The coat of arms in the panel over the window is divided in pale, having the three boars’ heads of the Gordons on the dexter side, and a lion rampant on the sinister side. These, Mr. Galloway suggests, may be the arms of John Gordon of Kenmure, who was Justiciar of the Stewartry in 1555, and died in 1604, and who here combines the provincial with the family arms—the lion rampant being the heraldic emblem of the province of Galloway.