That the little Church of Egilshay existed long prior to the era of St. Magnus cannot, I conceive, admit of doubt. A comparison of it with the stately cathedral of Kirkwall, founded little more than thirty years after the death of the sainted Earl, is alone sufficient to prove its erection at a period essentially differing from the era of the fully developed Romanesque. Its later dedication to that favourite northern saint is abundantly accounted for by the remarkable historical fact that in its immediate neighbourhood, if not indeed, as the Aberdeen Breviary states, within this venerable fane, the gentle Magnus Erlendson was hewn down by his fierce cousin Hacon, A.D. 1106. It affords additional confirmation of the source of the Christianity of the Northern Isles, that we are told in the same venerable Scottish ecclesiastical authority, that Magnus commended his soul to the Redeemer, to St. Mary, and to the old northern apostles, St. Palladius and St. Serf. The fame of the sanctity of the martyred Earl of Orkney was speedily attested, according to the faith of the period, by numerous miracles wrought at his tomb. Pilgrimages were made to his shrine, and saintly honours accorded to him, not in Orkney only, but throughout Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and the Scottish mainland. Within twenty years after his death the legendary incidents of his life had been woven into an Icelandic Saga, strangely differing from that of Hilda and her attendant Valkyries. Ronald, the nephew of the martyred Earl, obtained a grant from the King of Norway of the possessions which were his by right of succession to his uncle, and on successfully establishing his claims the cathedral of St. Magnus at Kirkwall was begun in or about the year 1138, in fulfilment of a vow he had made while fortune still hung doubtful in the scale.
The reputation of the sainted Earl has outlived that of any other Scottish saint, if we except the good St. Margaret. His name is still spoken with reverence throughout Orkney and Shetland, independently of all idea of saintship or martyrdom, to which indeed his claims are greatly more doubtful than his just title to the character of an upright ruler in a barbarous age. He died in a private quarrel with his own cousin, in which no other questions than those of mutual interest appear to have been involved. But the Church availed itself of the reverence which his virtues had inspired; and to this it is no doubt mainly owing that, notwithstanding the extreme veneration in which his name was held, little trustworthy information is to be found regarding him, even in the authorized records of hagiology. The Aberdeen Breviary styles him "the Apostle of Orkney and the Hebrides." Other old authorities refer to him as a bishop or missionary to the Pagans of the north; and a writer in the first Statistical Accounts[617] winds up a sufficiently amusing attempt at tracing his history, by shewing the great probability that he was a knight templar!
The characteristics of the majestic cathedral of the Northern Isles furnish valuable elements of comparison with other examples of early ecclesiastical architecture in Scotland; while they completely confirm the great antiquity of the simple edifice which was deserted as the see of the Orkney bishops for the stately edifice at Kirkwall dedicated to the sainted Earl of the Orkneys. If we except the one common feature of the rounded arch, no elements of comparison exist. The cathedral is a well-defined example of the late Romanesque style, bearing no traces of the rudeness or imperfection which might be looked for in the transition from an humble and homely fane to one of such pretensions, but distinctly marked as belonging to a later period than Dunfermline, Kelso, and other of the older Scottish abbeys in the same style.
Returning to the consideration of the round towers of the Scottish mainland, the reader will probably be prepared by the previous evidences of the close affinity traceable between the early Irish and Scottish arts to assume that these erections, which find a parallel only in Ireland, are either the work of the Irish Scots or the result of the intimate intercourse with Ireland which was maintained at a well-ascertained period of our history. When we consider the close resemblance between the round towers of Brechin and Abernethy, and many of those of Ireland, amounting to a complete identity of style, it seems strange that Scottish antiquaries should have hesitated in ascribing to the former a Christian origin, after the obscure annals of the Dalriadic Scots had been cleared up. From these, as we have already seen, the Irish Scoti had no footing beyond their little territory in Argyleshire till the middle of the ninth century; and we have unquestionable evidence that the Romanesque or Anglo-Norman style had obtained general acceptance in Scotland in the very beginning of the twelfth century. Between these two periods, therefore, must the precise date of erection of both the round towers of Brechin and Abernethy be sought. But this interval is further greatly limited by the establishment of the third Norwegian kingdom by Thorfinn in 1034. It embraced nearly the whole of the north of Scotland, and was successfully maintained for thirty years, so that we are almost unavoidably compelled to assume their date as prior to this earlier period. The triumph of Thorfinn involved the extinction of the house of Kenneth MacAlpin, and the extermination of the most powerful chiefs of the Scottish race. By this we are limited to a period somewhat short of two centuries, within which it may be assumed that the Scottish round towers were erected; and with this such historical evidence as we possess in some degree accords. Neither of them, however, are the primitive structures reared on these long sacred sites. The tower of Abernethy, which stands solitary and unroofed, with all the ancient ecclesiastical adjuncts of a collegiate foundation utterly effaced, may be very briefly dismissed. Gordon[618] gives its dimensions as follows: Its elevation is seventy-five feet, wanting the conical roof which we may assume to have originally crowned its summit, adding ten or twelve feet to the height. The doorway which faces the north, and is, as usual, elevated several feet from the ground, is eight and a half feet high, by two and a half feet wide, and consists of a plain semicircular-headed opening. The tower now occupies an angle of the inclosed churchyard, and serves both as a belfry and clock-tower for the plain modern church; in addition to which the obsolete iron jougs still attached to it shew that it was also enlisted in older times in the execution of ecclesiastical discipline.
The Pictish Chronicle records the founding of a church at Abernethy, by Necton, King of the Picts, who reigned about the year 455. He dedicated the royal foundation to God and to St. Brigid, and endowed it with lands, usque ad diem judicii, the boundaries of which are minutely specified, "from the stone at Apurfeirt to the stone near Cairfuill," &c.,—an interesting example of the Hoare Stones or landmarks of the fifth century. This is further confirmed by Fordun,[619] who quotes an ancient chronicle of Abernethy in corroboration of the earlier record. Of the precise character of this ecclesia collegiata de Abernethy of the fifth century, it is now vain to speculate, but most probably, even for some centuries later, it was only a wooden church after the manner of the Britons, and so remained until about A.D. 711, when we learn from Bede of a second Naiton or Necton, King of the Picts, who sent messengers to the venerable Ceolfrid, abbot of the historian's own monastery of Jarrow, at the mouth of the Wear, inquiring concerning sundry disputed questions, and praying him to send architects who, according to the manner of the Romans, should make a church of stone among his people. The Pictish monarch qualifies a promise of future obedience to the holy Roman and Apostolic Church thus naively: "In quantum dumtaxat tam longe a Romanorum loquela et natione consegregati hunc ediscere potuissent."[620] At what time the royal foundation of Abernethy was remodelled, according to the fashion indicated by its ancient tower, is not recorded in any authority that I know of, but it may not improbably be found noted by some of the Irish annalists from whom Dr. Petrie has already recovered so large an amount of well-authenticated history. The interest in it has naturally been greatly diminished by the annihilation of every vestige of the collegiate buildings except the tower. Its masonry, however, closely corresponds to that of Brechin, while the character of its upper windows is suggestive of even a more recent period, and it is probable that they are additions of a later date than the original structure.
The ecclesiastical foundation of Brechin, so far as we know, is fully four centuries later than that of Abernethy, and belongs to the era of the kings of the Scottish race. The ancient Pictish Chronicle concludes in the reign of Kenneth, the son of Malcolm, 967-991, and is supposed to have been written at that early period. It sums up the brief record of his reign in these words: "This is he who gave the great city of Brechin to the Lord." It does not perhaps necessarily follow that no earlier church existed at Brechin; but to this period we may assign, on the authority of the ancient Chronicle, the first royal foundation; and in the absence of other evidence, I should have felt little hesitation in fixing it as the period when the present round tower was built. Dr. Petrie, however, assigns a date about thirty years later, and promises more precise information derived from the Irish annalists, from whence we may hope for other valuable additions to the Annales Scotorum. Meanwhile, we have obtained an approximation to the desired date, concerning which the indefatigable investigator of the history of these peculiar structures only remarks, "The round tower of Brechin in Scotland there is every reason to believe was erected about the year 1020, and by Irish ecclesiastics."[621] In dimensions this ancient structure somewhat exceeds that of Abernethy, measuring eighty-five feet to the cornice,[622] above which a roof or spire of later date has been added when the cathedral church was re-erected in the thirteenth century. In every other respect it offers superior attractions to that of Abernethy, surrounded as it is with the more recent yet venerable and characteristic memorials of ancient ecclesiastical art, and adorned with sculptures of a singular and very remarkable character. The masonry of the tower, as will be seen from the drawing of the doorway, is of that kind which has been traced as gradually arising out of the cyclopean work of ancient Greece. The stones are polygonal, carefully hewn, and fitted to each other with the utmost neatness and art; the courses of masonry being mostly horizontal, though with more or less irregularity, and the joints not uniformly vertical. It is the same style of work which characterizes the walls of the ancient cities of Etruria, and is also found in Ireland to have succeeded to the ruder primitive cyclopean masonry. But the peculiar feature of the Brechin Tower is its sculptured doorway. Its dimensions are as follows: The breadth at the spring of the arch is one foot seven and a half inches, and at the base one foot eleven inches. The height of the entrance to the centre of the arch is six feet one and a half inch, and the entire height of the doorway from the base of the external ornament to the summit of the crucifix which surmounts the centre of the arch, is eight feet eleven and a half inches.[623]
Doorway, Round Tower of Brechin.