18. Architecture—(a)— Ecclesiastical.

The history of Scotland from an architectural point of view does not reach very far back into the past. Till the tide of civilisation flowed into Scotland from the south in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, there existed in the country no architecture worthy of the name. When the Normans became the ruling power in Britain, they brought architectural ideas with them and these superseded thecrude attempts at church building hitherto made. The Scottish churches built under the influence of Columba were simple and rude, consisting of a small oblong chamber with a single door and a single window. The Norman style, which obliterated these structures, dates from the twelfth century and, being carried along the coast of lowland Scotland, gradually changed the manner of building. It is characterised by simple, massive forms and especially by arches of a semi-circular shape, sometimes enriched by zig-zag, and by the use of nook shafts and cushion capitals. Of this period the remains in Scotland are not numerous, and they are very few in Aberdeenshire. The earliest specimen we can point to is the ancient church of Monymusk, which contains some Norman building incorporated in the modern church erected on the old site. Monymusk is on Donside seven miles up the river from Kintore. It is a place of great antiquity. The Culdees first appear there in the twelfth century, and the Earl of Mar built a convent for them on condition that they should submit to canonical rule. The lower part of the church tower and the chancel arch are of the Norman style. The tower has been entirely rebuilt except the lower doorway, which has a round arch-head with a hood mould enclosing it. These small fragments suggest that they were part of the convent erected by the Earl of Mar very early in the thirteenth century.

The rounded arch gave place in the thirteenth century to the early Gothic, of which the most striking feature is the pointed arch. This is theFirst Pointed Period. Ornament was more general, the mouldings were richerand more graceful and the foliage of trees was occasionally copied. The windows were narrow, lofty and pointed, giving an impression of space and lightness. Aberdeenshire is too far north to have developed many examples of this early style, but it has some. The Abbey of Deer is perhaps the most ancient ecclesiastical building, but it is now a complete ruin, all the best parts of it having disappeared within the last fifty years. It was founded in the thirteenth century. Deer had been an ecclesiastical centre long before that time. The story goes that Columba and his pupil Drostan travelled from Iona to Aberdeenshire when Bede was Mormaer (Earl) of Buchan. They were first at Aberdour on the coast, but ultimately journeyed to Deer, where Columba requested the Mormaer to grant him a site for a church. At first the Mormaer refused, but his son fell ill and in consideration of the efficacy of the prayers of the two holy men in bringing the youth back to health, the Mormaer granted them the lands of Deer and this was probably the first place in Aberdeenshire where a regular Christian church was erected. No trace of that church, built in the sixth century, is left.

The Abbey was an entirely different structure and not begun till early in the thirteenth century. It was founded by William Comyn, Earl of Buchan, and was really a Cistercian Abbey, originally occupied by monks sent from Kinloss. From the ruins now within the grounds of Pitfour House, it can be made out that the length of the building (nave and chancel) was 150 feet. A few mouldings and the arches of some windows indicate that it belonged to the first pointed period. The building wasof red sandstone probably brought from New Byth, some 12 miles distant. After the Reformation the Abbey fell to decay and its walls became, as in many other cases, a quarry from which other buildings were erected. In 1809 the ruins were enclosed with a wall by the then proprietor, Mr James Ferguson of Pitfour, but since then they have dwindled.

No mention of Deer is possible without reference to the famousBook of Deer—a manuscript volume of the highest value, emanating not from the Abbey but from Columba’s monastery in the same region. The book was brought to light in 1860 by the late Mr Henry Bradshaw, University Librarian at Cambridge. It had lain unrecognised in the Library since 1715. It contains the Gospel of St John and other portions of scripture in the writing of the ninth century; but of even greater importance is the fact that on its margins it contains memoranda of grants to the monastery, made by Celtic chiefs of Buchan and all written in Gaelic. These jottings are of the highest historical value.

Some traces of the Early Pointed style are found in St Machar Cathedral (the greater part of which, however, is much later). The old church of Auchindoir close to Craig Castle has a good doorway and other features of this period.

FromThe Book of Deer

From the middle of the fourteenth to the middleof the fifteenth century (1350-1450) is in Scotland theMiddle Pointed Period. The windows were made larger, the vaulting and buttresses less heavy. The Cathedral of St Machar belongs in part to this time. The legend goesthat St Machar in obedience to the commands of Columba, of whom he was a disciple, journeyed to Scotland and at Old Aberdeen founded a church. This church in the twelfth century became the seat of a bishopric founded by David I. The original church was superseded probably about 1165, the only relic of this Norman period being part of the abacus of a square pier. All other traces of earlier work have vanished. In the fourteenth century Bishop Alexander Kyninmonth II rebuilt the nave, partly of red sandstone with foliated capitals of great beauty and decorated with naturalistic imitation of leafage, one capital representing curly kail (colewort). The same kind of decoration is seen in Melrose Abbey. Later on the two impressive western towers, which are to-day conspicuous objects in the eastern landscape to all travellers northward-bound from Aberdeen, were added. They form a granite mass of solid and substantial masonry, and, being finished with machicolation, parapet-paths and capehouses, were really like a castle in Early English architecture. Still later on, in the sixteenth century, Bishop Elphinstone, who founded the University of Aberdeen, who built the first Bridge of Dee, and gave a new choir to St Nicholas Church, completed the central tower and placed in it fourteen bells “tuneable and costly.” The sandstone spires over the western towers were added by Bishop Dunbar early in the sixteenth century, in place of the original capehouses. The central tower fell in 1688, crushing the transepts.

St Machar Cathedral, Old Aberdeen

St Machar Cathedral (interior)

In 1560 the government ordered the destruction of the altars, images and other monuments of the old faith, and this cathedral suffered with the rest. It was despoiled of all its costly ornaments and the choir was demolished. The roof was stripped of its lead and the bells were carried off. All that remains to-day is the nave (now the parish church), a south porch, the western towers and fragments of the transept walls, which contain tombs of Bishop Lichtoun, Bishop Dunbar, and others. This is the only granite cathedral in the country, and, though dating from the Middle and late Pointed periods, has reminiscences of the Norman style in its short, massive cylindrical pillars and plain unadorned clerestory windows. Another feature is the great western window divided bysix long shafts of stone. The finely carved pulpit now in the Chapel of King’s College is a relic of the wood-carvings destroyed in 1649. The whole is extremely plain but highly impressive and imposing. Its flat panelled oak ceiling decorated with heraldic shields of various European kings, Pope Leo X, and Scottish ecclesiastics and nobility (48 in all) is worthy of mention. This heraldic ceiling was restored in 1868-71.

King’s College, Aberdeen University

Of later date is King’s College Chapel, at no great distance from the Old Cathedral. It is a long, narrow but handsome building begun in 1500, shortly after the foundation of the University by Bishop Elphinstone. The chapel and its graceful tower are the oldest parts of the College buildings which had originally three towers.

East and West Churches, Aberdeen

The surviving one is a massive structure buttressed nearly to the top and bearing aloft a lantern of crossed rib arches, surmounted by a beautiful imperial crown with finial cross, somewhat resembling St Giles’s in Edinburgh. The difference is that King’s College has four ribs while St Giles’s has eight. The whole is of freestone from Morayshire. The entire building is a mixture of Scottish and French Gothic styles, and retains in the large western window the semi-circular arch, a peculiarity of Scottish Gothic throughout all periods. The canopied stalls andthe screen of richly carved oak, Gothic in design and most beautifully handled, take a place among the finest pieces of mediaeval carved work existing in the British Empire. Their beauty and delicacy, according to Hill Burton, surpass all remains of a similar kind in Scotland. The chapel contains the tomb of Bishop Elphinstone. It was once highly ornamented, but meantime is covered with a plain marble slab. Its restoration is in prospect.

St Nicholas Church, Aberdeen (now the East and West Churches) contains in its transepts and groined crypt and in its wood-carving, interesting relics of twelfth, fifteenth and sixteenth century work. The nave was rebuilt in the Renaissance style of the time (1755).

Greyfriars Church, removed a few years ago to make way for the new front of Marischal College, was a pre-Reformation church, built by Alexander Galloway, Rector of Kinkell, early in the sixteenth century. Its chief features were its range of buttresses and a fine seven-light, traceried window.

The Protestant churches that succeeded these ancient buildings were inferior as architecture. It was only in the nineteenth century that taste began to revive and some attempt at grace and embellishment was made. Architects began to study old styles, and this combined with the increasing wealth of the country created a new standard in ecclesiastical requirements. To-day our churches tend to grow in architectural beauty.

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