argyll-1971/01-065

Transcription

employed at Shrule, Co. Longford, colonised from Mellifont in about 1150.(1). In Scotland a similar lay-out is found at one or two of the Cistercian houses such as Culross and also in the Valliscaulian monastery of Beauly. To judge from the surviving fragments of carved detail, the original buildings were executed in a style closely akin to that found in the second phase of Irish Romanesque, and it is not unlikely that one or more of the Saddell carvers was of Irish origin.
The parochial churches and chapels of the Middle Ages are for the most part simple oblong buildings of unicameral plan having a minimum of architectural elaboration. To judge from their original layouts, insofar as they can be reconstructed for purposes of analysis (Fig 7), the buildings fall into three main groups, of which the first comprises the parish churches of Gigha (no. 276), Kilchenzie (No. 280), Kilchousland (No. 281) and Killean (No. 287). These vary in size from about 10 m to 13 m in length and from 4.5 m to 5 m in width internally, most of the surviving windows being small deeply-splayed openings having round or pointed heads, frequently rebated externally. The last three members of the group can be ascribed to the 12th century, while St Cathan's, Gigha, together with the larger but otherwise similar parish church of Kilkivan (No. 286), probably belongs to the 13th century. These buildings show little affinity with the contemporary parish-churches of Eastern Scotland, where the oblong unicameral plan is rarely found before the 13th century and then usually in a more elongated form. Both Killiean nad Kilchenzie, however, were lengthened during the course of the 13th century, the former by the addition of a richly decorated chancel executed in a a style similar to that employed at Dunstaffnage College, Lorn.