Scottish Cathedrals and Abbeys

by Dugald Butler

The cloister occupies a space of 93 feet by 91 feet, and was surrounded by a vaulted walk which has entirely disappeared. It is evident that the cloister walk was at least partly vaulted, from the small remains of the springing of the vaults which are visible in the eastern wall on each side of the doorway to the chapter-house. The south wall of the nave of the church extends along the north side of the cloister, and at the N.E. angle is the doorway which led from the cloister into the nave—a handsome specimen of the Transition style. The nave of the church is entered through this handsome doorway by ten steps up from the cloister, and presents a scene of terrible destruction. The west end wall partly remains, "and shows by the responds attached to it the form of the nave piers, with their caps and bases. The position of the piers along the nave is now roughly indicated by a collection of fragments arranged as nearly as possible in the original position and form. The mouldings indicate a late date, and were, doubtless, restorations; but the responds, which were not so liable to destruction, are of first pointed date. The responds which form part of the west wall show that there was a central nave 28 feet wide and side aisles, each about 13 feet 6 inches wide, making a total width of 55 feet. There have been side chapels in the nave, apparently divided by walls, some portions of which remain, with ambries in the chapels. The western doorway has a round arched head, but its details show that it is of late design. This part of the edifice has apparently been restored in the fifteenth century, after the destruction of the abbey by Richard II. in the end of the fourteenth century."[331]

The transept has a slight projection to the north and south; this part of the building and all to the east of it are evidently of thirteenth century work, but only a few detached portions remain. The south transept gable has a large window filled with simple pointed tracery, rising in steps above the roof of the dormitory. The arch through which the stair to the dormitory passed is visible in this wall. To the east of the transept is a choir of two bays, with aisles, and beyond which is an aisleless presbytery. The portions left are pronounced to be of a very beautiful design, both internally and externally. The exterior is simple but elegant, and of first pointed work; the interior shows evidence of more advanced design. The clerestory is of beautiful design; "each bay contains an arcade of three arches, the central one, which is opposite the window, being larger than the side arches. The arches are supported on detached piers, behind which runs a gallery. These piers each consist of two shafts, with central fillet. They have first pointed round caps, over which a round block receives the arch mouldings as they descend. A small portion of the north end of the transept adjoins the above, which shows that the structure has been carried up in two stories of richly moulded windows, all in the same style as the adjoining portions of the choir. The remaining portion of the aisle is vaulted with moulded ribs springing from responds and corbels corresponding in style with the choir."[332]

Here rests the dust of Sir Walter Scott and his kinsfolk, and of it Alexander Smith wrote that "when the swollen Tweed raves as it sweeps, red and broad, round the ruins of Dryburgh, you think of him who rests there—the magician asleep in the lap of legends old, the sorcerer buried in the heart of the land he has made enchanted."

Dunfermline Abbey (Fife).—Dunfermline was from a very early period the residence of the kings of Scotland and here Malcolm Canmore had his tower; here he entertained the royal fugitives from England, and married the Princess Margaret in 1068. The Glen of Pittencrieff contains the remains of the Tower of Malcolm Canmore, and of a subsequent royal palace, and they were in 1871 pronounced by the House of Lords to be Crown property. Malcolm's Tower is believed to have been built between 1057 and 1070, and the royal palace may have been founded as early as 1100, although more likely it was not built till after the departure of Edward I. of England, in February 1304. The kings of Scotland, from Robert Bruce onward, appear to have frequently resided in the palace.

According to Turgot, Queen Margaret, after her marriage, founded a church "in that place where her nuptials were celebrated," and it was dedicated to the Holy Trinity in 1074. It became the place of royal sepulture, and Queen Margaret was buried within it. There are frequent references from this time onwards of grants to the church of the Holy Trinity, and to interments of royal personages therein. "The original church of Canmore," says Professor Innes, "perhaps not of stone, must have been replaced by a new edifice when it was dedicated in the reign of David I.,"[333] and Messrs. MacGibbon and Ross add

"As no notice has been preserved of the erection of any new church till the building of the choir in the first quarter of the thirteenth century, it has been supposed that the nave of the existing structure (which is in the Norman style) may have been the church founded and erected by Queen Margaret. But the style of the building forbids this supposition. None of the English cathedrals were founded till the end of the eleventh century, and few were carried out till the expiry of the first quarter of the twelfth century. Scotland would certainly not be in advance of England in its style of architecture, and we know that little, if any, Norman work was executed in this country till the days of David I.... The style of the structure is early Norman, and would naturally follow the erection of Durham Cathedral, which took place about twenty-five years earlier."[334]

The same authorities think that the original church of Malcolm stood where the new choir was afterwards erected, and that David I. added the Norman nave to it.

"The nature of the site seems to favour this view, as the ground to the west slopes rapidly away, and scarcely allows room for the west end of the nave; while the conventual buildings, for want of suitable space, have had to be carried with an archway over a public street."[335]

Alexander I. seems to have contemplated its erection into an abbey, and in the year of his succession David I. remodelled it as a Benedictine Abbey, and placed in it an abbot and twelve brethren brought from Canterbury. By the close of the thirteenth century it had become one of the most magnificent institutions in Scotland.