stirling-1963-vol-1/05_164

Transcription

No. 130 -- ECCLESIASTICAL MONUMENTS -- No. 131

[Plan Inserted]
Fig. 51. Cambuskenneth Abbey (No. 130); outlying buildings

tains only a single large room, measuring about 54 ft. 9 in.
by 15 ft. 6 in. within walls 4 ft. 6 in. in thickness. In each
of its side-walls there are breaks from 11 ft. to 14 ft. long
which are filled by the voussoirs of arched openings
situated below ground level; the voussoirs are large
rough stones and the arches extend to the full thickness
of the walls, but the purpose of these constructions could
only be determined by excavation. Part of this range
may have accommodated the infirmary.
Some 21 ft. S. of the building just described, and
joined to it by a wall, there are the foundations of a long,
narrow structure, now traceable on an E.-W. axis to a
length of 67 ft. but originally longer. Its internal width
is 15 ft. and its walls are 2 ft. 9 in. thick; its only surviving
feature is a door in the E. gable. Roughly parallel to this
structure, and some 74 ft. distant to the S., there lies
another outbuilding (B on Figs. 49 and 51); it is 117 ft.
long and from 25 ft. 4 in. to 26 ft. 2 in. wide, the walls
varying in thickness from 2 ft. 10 in. to 3 ft. 10 in. A room
measuring 19 ft. 9 in. by 17 ft. 6 in. occupies the E. end
of the ground floor; this is entered from the W. through
an internal partition, and is lit by a small slit in the N.
wall and a window 11 in. wide in the E. gable. A room
on the first floor has been transformed into a dovecot by
the insertion of rows of nests, and above this an upper
storey has been either added or rebuilt. At the W. end of
the block, where the walls are thicker, there is a room
measuring 19 ft. 6 in. by 12 ft. 3 in.; this is entered
through a stepped-down doorway in its NE. corner, and
in its W. gable a curved fireplace-opening seems to have
been hollowed out. Between the two ends of the block
most of the walling has disappeared, but the N. side-wall
retains the E. jamb of a doorway and towards the W. end
a buttress-foundation projects on either side.
Close to the NE. corner of the N. transept there are
foundations which may represent the enclosing wall of a
garden or orchard. The name of St. James' Orchard,
which lies N. of the tower, suggests that this ground may
once have been connected with the Abbey.
Some carved fragments from the Abbey are preserved
at Alexandria Cottage, Cambuskenneth, and in St.
Andrew's Aisle in the Church of the Holy Rude,
Stirling (p. 138).

809939 -- NS 89 SW -- 3 June 1954

131. The Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling.
INTRODUCTORY. The Burgh of Stirling no doubt
possessed its own church from the earliest times, ¹ but
while the site of the present building may have been in
use since the 12th century the structure itself is not older
than the 15th century. Of the earlier churches that may
have occupied the site, very little is known and no
fragments survive. In 1414 mention is made of a grant
to the work of the parish church of Stirling, which had
been burnt, ² but, as the architectural evidence suggests
that the earliest portion of the present fabric is on the
whole more likely to date from the later than from the

1 By the middle of the 12th century the abbey of Dunfermline
was in possession of two churches in the "vill" of Stirling, one
of which was no doubt a predecessor of the present building
(Lawrie, Charters, No. CCIX).
2 Excheq. Rolls, iv (1406-36), 210.

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