Scottish Cathedrals and Abbeys

The following is from Scottish Cathedrals and Abbeys by Rev. D. Butler, M.A.:

Chapter V - Scottish Norman Parish Churches

"Two nearly perfect churches of the Romanesque age," says Dr. Joseph Robertson, "survive at Dalmeny and Leuchars--the former apparently in the twelfth century a manor of the Anglo-Norman house of Avenel, the latter a Scottish fief of one of the Magna Charter barons, Saier de Quincy, Earl of Winchester. Neither building need fear comparison with the common standard of English examples. Both are late in style: Leuchars is the richer, Dalmeny the more entire of the two. Both have semicircular apses--a feature found also in the parish churches of St. Kentigern at Borthwick, and St. Andrew at Gulane, and in the chapel bearing the name of St. Margaret within the walls of Edinburgh Castle."[282]

Dalmeny Church

Dalmeny Church is the most complete of Scottish Norman churches, and consists of a chancel with eastern apse, and a nave separated from the chancel by an elaborate chancel arch. The arch has three orders, decorated with elaborate chevron ornaments, enclosed with a hood moulding carved with an enrichment somewhat resembling the dog-tooth. The soffit contains a similar faceted enrichment. The arch is carried on three attached shafts on each side, built in ashlar, and provided with subdivided cushion caps and plain bases. The chancel has one small window on the south side, and is vaulted with bold diagonal groin-ribs, enriched with chevron ornaments and springing from grotesque corbels. The apse is semicircular, and is entered from the chancel by an enriched arch with shafts and caps similar to those of the chancel arch. It is lighted by three plain window openings, the central one being enlarged. In the exterior a string-course runs round the building immediately below the windows, of which it forms the sills, and is enriched with a carved floral pattern. The chief feature is the main entrance door in a porch, projecting to the south, the archway of which is supported on two plain pillars with Norman capitals. There are over this door the remains of a line, concentric with the arch, of sculptured figures and animals, very similar to those found on the ancient sculptured monuments of Scotland. Associated with the Agnus Dei, Leo, Sagittarius, serpents, birds, dragons, and human figures, we have one perhaps bearing a pastoral staff. From the rough nature of the masonry at the west end of the nave it is probable that a tower was intended to be built there.[283] On the north side projecting wings have been added to the church, but the south front and east end are almost untouched and show twelfth century work, uninjured save by weather and natural decay. The church is believed to have been dedicated to St. Adamnan, and this is rendered very probable by the fact that the neighbouring church of Cramond was dedicated to St. Columba.

Leuchars Church, Fifeshire

We hear of a church here in 1187, and it was given to the canons of St. Andrews (1171-1199). The church now consists of a choir with a circular apse; there are traces of an arch at the west end of the choir which opened into the nave, that has been rebuilt. In the seventeenth century a turret was built, which is incongruous and out of place; and to support the belfry a plain arch has been introduced in the interior amongst the Norman work of the apse. The exterior of the semicircular apse shows an arcade of two storeys,

"the shafts of the upper tier resting on the arches of the lower one, and all the shafts bearing cushion caps. Those of the lower story are double shafts, and those of the upper story are double shafts, with a broad fillet between them. All the arches are enriched with chevron and billet mouldings, and the upper tier has an extra order of elaborate billet-work. The string-course between the two arcades is carved with zigzags. The cornice is supported on a series of boldly-carved grotesque heads, all varying in design.... The design of the exterior of the choir is similar to that of the apse, there being two arcades, one above the other, surmounted by a cornice, with corbels carved as grotesque heads. The lower arcade, however, has interlacing arches, which indicate a late period of the style. The two arcades are separated by a string-course, enriched with scroll floral ornament. In the interior ... the chancel arch (which has elaborate carving) is carried on a central attached shaft and two plain nook shafts, built in courses, with simple cushion caps and plain bases. The chancel is vaulted with heavy moulded groins, springing from the cushion caps of short single shafts resting on grotesque heads. A small window is introduced in each of the divisions formed by the shafts, and each window has a pair of nook shafts in the interior and enriched arch above. The lower part of the apse is plain, and is separated from the upper part by a string-course, enriched with faceted ornaments."[284]

[282] Scottish Abbeys and Cathedrals, p. 36.
[283] Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland, vol. i. pp. 298-309.
[284] Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland, vol. i. pp. 313, 314.

Parish Churches Illustrating Middle Pointed or Decorated Period