stirling-1963-vol-1/05_074

Transcription

INTRODUCTION : THE MIDDLE AGES AND LATER
Ireland and comparatively common in Scotland it is possible that this pin may be of Scottish
manufacture. Typological indications suggest a date about the middle of the 9th century. ¹
The following Dark Age monuments are plotted on the distribution map (Fig. 4):
Fort, Dunmore (No. 77)
Cashel, Knockinhaglish (No. 160)
Cashel, Strathcashell Point (No. 164)

7. THE MIDDLE AGES AND LATER

ECCLESIASTICAL MONUMENTS
The paucity of religious foundations in Stirlingshire has already been remarked (supra, p. 9),
while of the few monastic houses that did originally exist little remains today. At Cambus-
kenneth (No. 130), where a community of Augustinian canons was founded in the middle of
the 12th century, the most important of the surviving buildings is the fine free-standing
bell-tower, the only example of its kind in Scotland. The tower, which stands to the north of
the church close to the west end of the nave, may be ascribed to the late 13th or early 14th
century. The church and the claustral buildings were largely demolished after the dissolution
of the Abbey, but part of their foundations was exposed in the middle of the 19th century and
is now laid out for inspection. Apart from the rather small size of the cloister the plan is
unremarkable; the church, which consisted of a nave with a north aisle, transepts with eastern
chapels, and a short presbytery, seems to have been built early in the 13th century, but there
is evidence to suggest that it was altered in late mediaeval times. The church of the small
Cistercian nunnery of Manuel (No. 144) survived, though roofless, at least until 1739, but
was almost entirely destroyed later in the 18th century by the encroachment of the River Avon.
Nothing more than a fragment of the west gable of the church survives today; this dates from
the late 12th or early 13th century, and its design shows that the nave originally incorporated a
west Galilee. There is now no trace of the Dominican and Franciscan friaries that formerly
stood within the burgh of Stirling.
Nor, with the notable exception of the Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling (No. 131), does
very much now remain of the mediaeval parish churches of the county. On the island of
Inchcailleach, in Loch Lomond, there may be seen the foundations of the church (No. 163)
which, until the 17th century, served the parish now called Buchanan. The building, which
has been tentatively dated to the late 12th or early 13th century, appears to have been a simple
rectangular structure with internal measurements of about 64 ft. by about 19 ft. At Airth
(No. 137) there remain some interesting fragments of another church of this period, while at
St. Ninians (No. 133) there is evidence to show that in late mediaeval times the church
comprised a west tower and a considerable nave with north and south aisles, together with the
small square-ended chancel that alone remains today.

1 The Commissioners are indebted to Dr. Liam de Paor for a detailed report on this pin, of which the statement here given
is a summary.

-- 38