Chapter 10

The preceding remarks have spun out to a most unexpected extent; and I have to apologise both for their extravagant length and rambling character. At the same time, however, I believe that it would be considered an object of no small interest if it could be shown to be at all probable that we had still near us a specimen, however rude and ruinous, of early Scoto-Irish architecture. All authorities now acknowledge the great influence which, from the sixth to the eleventh or twelfth century, the Irish Church and Irish clergy exercised over the conversion and civilisation of Scotland. But on the eastern side of the kingdom we have no known remains of Scoto-Irish ecclesiastical architecture except the beautiful and perfect Round Tower of Brechin,[123] and the ruder and probably older Round Tower of Abernethy. If, to these two instances, we dare to conjoin a specimen of a house or oratory of the same Scoto-Irish style, and of the same ancient period, such as the Oratory on Inchcolm seems to me probably to be, we would have in such a specimen an addition of some moment to this limited and meagre list. Besides, it would surely not be uninteresting could we feel certain that we have still standing, within eight or ten miles of Edinburgh, a building whose roof had covered the head of King Alexander I., though it covered it for three days only; for that very circumstance would at the same time go far to establish another fact, namely, that any such building might claim to be now the oldest roofed stone habitation in Scotland.[127]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 16: From the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, vol. ii. part iii.]

[Footnote 17: These contributions by the "Abbas Aemoniae Insulae" are alluded to by Boece, who wrote nearly a century afterwards, as one of the works upon which he founded his own _Scotorum Historiae_.--(See his _Praefatio_, p. 2; and Innes' _Critical Essay on the Ancient Inhabitants of Scotland_, vol. i., pp. 218 and 228.) Bower, in a versified colophon, claims the merit of having completed eleven out of the sixteen books composing the _Scotichronicon_ lib. xvi. cap. 39:--

"Quinque libros Fordun, undenos auctor arabat, Sic tibi clarescit sunt sedecim numero, Ergo pro precibus, petimus te, lector eorum," etc.]

[Footnote 18: See _Scotichronicon_, lib. xiii. cap. 34 and 37; lib. xiv. cap. 38, etc. In 1547 the Duke of Somerset, after the battle of Pinkie, seized upon Inchcolm as a post commanding "vtterly ye whole vse of the Fryth it self, with all the hauens uppon it," and sent as "elect Abbot, by God's sufferance, of the monastery of Sainct Coomes Ins, Sir Jhon Luttrell, knight, with C. hakbutters and l. pioners, to kepe his house and land thear, and ii. rowe barkes, well furnished with municion, and lxx. mariners to kepe his waters, whereby (naively remarks Patten) it is thought he shall soon becum a prelate of great power. The perfytnes of his religion is not alwaies to tarry at home, but sumetime to rowe out abrode a visitacion; and when he goithe, I haue hard say he taketh alweyes his sumners in barke with hym, which ar very open mouthed, and neuer talk but they are harde a mile of, so that either for loove of his blessynges, or feare of his cursinges, he is lyke to be soouveraigne ouer most of his neighbours."--(See Patten's _Account of the late Expedition in Scotlande_, dating "out of the parsonage of S. Mary Hill, London," in Sir John Dalyell's _Fragments of Scottish History_, pp. 79 and 81.) In Abbot Bower's time, the island seems to have been provided with some means of defence against these English attacks; for, in the _Scotichronicon_, in incidentally speaking of the return of the Abbot and his canons in October 1421 from the mainland to the island, it is stated that they dared not, in the summer and autumn, live on the island for fear of the English, for, it is added, the monastery at that time was not fortified as it is now, "non enim erant tunc, quales ut nunc, in monasterio munitiones" (lib. xv. cap. 38).]

[Footnote 19: Iona itself has not an air of stiller solitude. Here, within view of the gay capital, and with half the riches of the Scotland of earlier days spread around them, the brethren might look forth from their secure retreat on that busy ambitious world, from which, though close at hand, they were effectually severed.--(Billings' _Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland_, vol. iii. Note on Inchcolm.)]

[Footnote 20: Alexander Campbell, in his _Journey through North Britain_ (1802), after speaking of a fort in the east part of Inchcolm having a corps of artillery stationed on it, adds, "so that in lieu of the pious orisons of holy monks, the orgies of lesser deities are celebrated here by the sons of Mars," etc., vol. ii. p. 69.]

[Footnote 21: See MS. Records of the Privy Council of Scotland, 23d September 1564, etc.]

[Footnote 22: Bellenden's translation of Boece's _History of Scotland_, vol. ii. p. 500.]

[Footnote 23: _Works_ of William Drummond, Edinburgh, 1711, p. 7.]

[Footnote 24: Bishop Lesley's _History of Scotland_, p. 42.]

[Footnote 25: See General Hutton's MSS. in the Advocates' Library, as quoted in Billings' _Ecclesiastical Antiquities, loc. cit._]

[Footnote 26: See his Life in Colgan's _Trias Thaumaturga_, vol. ii. p. 466.]

[Footnote 27: _Scotichronicon_, lib. xv. cap. 23.]

[Footnote 28: _Scotichronicon_, lib. xv. cap. 38.]

[Footnote 29: _Ibid._ lib. xv. cap. 48.]

[Footnote 30: Images, or statues in wood, of the founders or patrons of churches of the sixth and seventh centuries, were common in Ireland, and no doubt in the Gaelic portion of Scotland. Some of these "images" are still preserved in islands on the west coast of Ireland. "St. Barr's wooden image" was preserved in his church in the island of Barray.--See Martin's _Western Isles of Scotland_, pp. 92, 93. But Macaulay, in his _History of St. Kilda_, p. 75, says, that this was an image of St. Brandan, to whom the church was consecrated.--P.]

[Footnote 31: _Ibid._ lib. xiii. cap. 34. When, in 1355, the navy of King Edward came up the Forth, and "spulyeit" Whitekirk, in East Lothian, still more summary vengeance was taken upon such sacrilege. For "trueth is (says Bellenden) ane Inglisman spulyeit all the ornamentis that was on the image of our Lady in the Quhite Kirk; and incontinent the crucifix fel doun on his head, and dang out his harnis."--(Bellenden's _Translation of Hector Boece's Croniklis_, lib. xv. c. 14; vol. ii. p. 446.)]

[Footnote 32: _Scotichronicon_, lib. xiii. cap. 37.]

[Footnote 33: See George Chalmers' _Caledonia_, vol. i. p. 320.]

[Footnote 34: "Within the bay call'd _Loch-Colmkill_, three miles further south, lies _Lough Erisort_, which hath an anchoring-place on the south and north."--Martin, p. 4. "The names of the churches in Lewis Isles, and the saints to whom they were dedicated, are St. _Columbkil's_, in the island of that name," etc.--_Ibid._ p. 27. I suspect that all the churches founded by Columba bore anciently the name of Columbkill. Bede tells that the saint bore the united name of Columbkill.--_Hist. Ec._ v. 9; and all the churches founded by him in Ireland, or places called after him, are, I think, invariably so designated. Thus also the lake near Mugstot, in Skye, now drained, and on the island of which the most undoubted remains of a monastic establishment of Columb's time still exist, was called Lough Columbkill, and the island Inch Columbkill.--P.]

[Footnote 35: See, for example, the notes on this passage in the editions of Steevens and Malone.]

[Footnote 36: Holinshed's _Chronicles_, vol. v. p. 268.]

[Footnote 37: _Scotorum Historiae_, lib. xi. f. 225, 251.]

[Footnote 38: See his great work on the _Sculptured Stones of Scotland_, plate cxxv. p. 39.]

[Footnote 39: I do not believe that there is a single example of armorial bearings to be found either in Scotland or Ireland of an earlier date than the close of the twelfth century.--P.]

[Footnote 40: Bellenden's _Translation of Boece's Croniklis of Scotland_, lib. xii. 2, vol. ii. p. 258.]

[Footnote 41: _Scotorum Historiae_ (1526), lib. xii. p. 257.]

[Footnote 42: _History of Fife and Kinross_, p. 35.]

[Footnote 43: _A Tour in Scotland_, part ii. p. 210. See also Grose's _Antiquities of Scotland_ (1797), vol. ii. p. 135.]

[Footnote 44: I feel quite satisfied that this monumental stone is of a much earlier date than the thirteenth century, and that it is most probably a Danish or Dano-Scottish monument.--P.]

[Footnote 45: In the _Buik of the Croniclis of Scotland_, or metrical version of the History of Hector Boece, by William Stewart, lately published under the authority of the Master of the Rolls, and edited by Mr. Turnbull, there is a description of the Danish monument on Inchcolm from the personal observation of the translator; and we know that this metrical translation was finished by the year 1535. The description is interesting, not only from being in this way a personal observation, but also as showing that, at the above date, the recumbent sculptured "greit stane," mentioned in the text, was regarded as a monument of the Danish leader, and that there stood beside it a Stone Cross, which has since unfortunately disappeared. After speaking of the burial of the Danes--

Into an yle callit Emonia, Sanct Colmis hecht now callit is this da,

and the great quantity of human bones still existing there, he adds in proof--

As _I myself quhilk has bene thair and sene._ Ane croce of stane thair standis on ane grene, Middis the feild quhair that they la ilk one, Besyde the croce thair lyis ane greit stane; Under the stane, in middis of the plane, Their chiftane lyis quhilk in the feild was slane.

(See vol. ii. p. 635). Within the last few months there has been discovered by Mr. Crichton another sculptured stone on Inchcolm. But the character of the sculptures on it is still uncertain, as the stone is in a dark corner, the exposed portion of it forming the ceiling of the staircase of the Tower, and the remainder of the stone being built into, and buried in the wall. The sculptures are greatly weather-worn, and the stone itself had been used in the original building of the Tower. The Tower of St. Mary's Church, or of the so-called Cathedral at Iona, is known to have been erected early in the thirteenth century. Mr. Huband Smith, who believes the Tower of the Cathedral in Iona, and perhaps the larger portion of the nave and aisles, to be "probably the erection of the twelfth and next succeeding century," found, in 1844, on the abacus of one of the supporting columns, the inscription "DONALDUS OBROLCHAN FECIT HOC OPUS;" and already this inscription has been broken and mutilated.--(See Ulster _Journal of Archaeology_, vol. i. p. 86.) The obit of a person of this name, and probably of this builder, occurs, as Dr. Reeves has shown, in the _Annals of Ulster_ in 1203, and in the _Annals of the Four Masters_ in 1202; and Dr. Reeves considers the Church or Cathedral at Iona as "an edifice of the early part of the thirteenth century."--(_Life of Columba_, pp. 411 and 416.) But the Tower of the Church of Inchcolm is so similar in its architectural forms and details to that of Icolmkill, that it is evidently a structure nearly, if not entirely, of the same age; and the new choir (novum chorum) built to the church in 1265 (see _Scotichronicon_, lib. x. c. 20) is apparently, as seen by its remaining masonic connections, posterior in age to the Tower upon which it abuts. Hence we are, perhaps, fairly entitled to infer that this sculptured stone thus incidentally used in the construction of the Tower on Inchcolm, existed on the island long, at least, before the thirteenth century, as by that time it was already very weather-worn, and consequently old.[46]]

[Footnote 46: I, too, consider this church to be of the early part of the thirteenth century. Parts of it, however, I believe to be of the twelfth century. I allude particularly to that portion on one of the columns of which the name of the builder appears, and who, I have little doubt, was the eminent person whose death--1202--is recorded by the Annalists. Pinkerton, vol. ii. p. 258, is in error in supposing any portion of the church to be of the eleventh century. The family of the O'Brolchans were of distinguished rank in the county of Derry, and intimately connected with the churches there. See my notices of them in the _Ordnance Memoir of the Parish of Temple More_, pp. 21, 22, 29. It may be worthy of remark that this family of O'Brolchain, or a branch of it, appear to have been eminent, hereditarily, after the Irish usage, as architects or builders. At the year 1029 the _Annals of Ulster_ record the death of Maolbride O'Brolchan, "_chief mason_ of Ireland." And at the year 1097, the death of Maelbrighde _Mac-an-tsaeir_ (son of the mason) O'Brolchan. And, lastly, we have the name of Donald O'Brolchan as the architect of the great church at Iona. But if this Donald be the person whose death is recorded in the _Annals_ as "a noble senior" in 1202, that part of the building in which the inscription is found must be surely of the twelfth century; and the style of its architecture supports that conclusion.--P.]

[Footnote 47: Twelfth.--P.]

[Footnote 48: Square recesses or ambries of this kind are common in the most ancient Irish oratories.--P.]

[Footnote 49: The unusual breadth, 4 feet, of this doorway, is perhaps the only feature in the structure likely to excite a doubt of its early antiquity. I cannot remember ever having seen in any very ancient church or oratory in Ireland a doorway so wide. The widest doorway that I have met with is, I think, that of the great church at Glandelough, which is 3 feet 10 inches wide at its base. The usual width in doorways of small churches and oratories is from 2 feet to 2 feet 10 inches.--P.]

[Footnote 50: When I first visited Inchcolm the ancient cell described in the present paper was the abode of one or two pigs; and on another occasion I found it inhabited by a cow. In consequence of the attention of the Earl of Moray (the proprietor of the island), and his active factor, Mr. Philipps, having been directed to the subject, all such desecration has been put an end to, and the whole building has been repaired in such a way as to retard its dilapidation. The plans required for its proper repair were kindly drawn out by my friend Mr. Brash of Cork, a most able architect and archaeologist, who had performed on various occasions previously a similar duty in reference to the restoration of old ecclesiastical buildings in the south and west of Ireland. All these restorations preserve, as far as possible, in every respect the original characteristics of the building. In making these restorations, several points mentioned in the text as visible in the former dilapidated state of the building, are now of course covered up, such as the section of the arch of the roof, represented in woodcut, Fig. 9, etc. Other new points, not alluded to in the text, were cleared up and brought to light as the necessary repairs were proceeded with. The opening in the western part of the south wall of the building was found to be the undoubted original door of the cell; and when the earth accumulated up against it externally was cleared away, there was discovered, leading from this door to the south, and in the direction of the well of the island, a built way or passage,[52] gently sloping upwards out of the cell, 4 feet in width, like the door itself, but becoming slightly wider when it reached the limit to which it has been as yet traced--viz., about 13 or 14 feet from the building. The built sides of this passage still stand about 3 or 4 feet in height; the lime used, as cement in constructing these sides is apparently the same as that used in the construction of the walls of the cell itself; and, further, the passage has been coated over with the same dense plaster as that still seen adhering at different points to the interior of the oratory. It is impossible to fix the original height of the walls of this passage, but probably these walls were so high at one time, near the entrance at least into the oratory, as to be there arched over; for, as stated in the text, the stones composing the outer or external arch of the doorway offer that appearance of irregular fracturing which they would necessarily show if the archway had been originally continued forward, and subsequently broken across parallel with the line or face of the south side wall. It is perhaps not uninteresting here to add, that in Icolmkill a similar walled walk or entrance led into the small house or building of unknown antiquity, named the "Culdee's Cell." In the old _Statistical Account_ (1795), this cell is described as "the foundation of a small circular house, upon a reclining plain. From the door of the house a walk ascends to a small hillock, with the remains of a wall upon each side of the walk, which grows wider to the hillock."--(_Statistical Account of Scotland_, vol. xiv. p. 200.) At the old heremetical establishment of St. Fechin, on High Island, Connemara, there is "a covered passage, about 15 feet long and 3 wide," leading from the oratory to the supposed nearly circular, dome-roofed cell of the Abbot.--(Dr. Petrie's _Ecclesiastical Architecture_, p. 425.)]

[Footnote 51: This window seems very ancient, and no mistake! Compare it with the window of the oratory near Kilmalkedar, in my _Towers_, p. 184. First edition.--P.]

[Footnote 52: This fact is, I think, very interesting and important as an evidence of the great antiquity of the building. Such built-passages are often found in Ireland connected with small churches and oratories of the sixth and seventh centuries, but never, to my knowledge, with any of a later age. They may, in fact, be considered as characteristic appendages, or accompanying features, to the ecclesiastical structures of those times. There is one at Rathmichael, near Dublin, where there is the butt of a round tower. I have seen many of them in various states of preservation, and I think all were about 4 feet both in breadth and height. They were, however, never arched, but roofed with large flags, laid horizontally, and their upper surface level with the surrounding ground.--P.]

[Footnote 53: After this sentence Dr. Petrie adds, "Good--very good."]

[Footnote 54: This is a strong evidence in favour of the antiquity of the structure.--P.]

[Footnote 55: See other similar notices of the visit of Alexander I. to Inchcolm in Buchanan's _Rerum Scoticarum Historia_, lib. vii. cap. 27; Leslaeus _de Rebus Gestis Scotorum_, lib. vi. p. 219, etc.]

[Footnote 56: Joannis de Fordun _Scotichronicon_, cum Supplementis et Continuatione Walteri Boweri Insulae St. Columbae Abbatis; cura Walteri Goodall (1759), vol. i. p. 286.]

[Footnote 57: My friend Mr. David Laing, with his usual kindness, has examined, with a view to this point, several manuscripts of the _Scotichronicon_, and has found that the account in that work of King Alexander's visit to Inchcolm is from the pen of Bower, and, as Mr. Laing adds in his note to me, "not the less curious and interesting on that account." In his original portion of the History, Fordun himself merely refers to the foundation of the Monastery of Inchcolm by Alexander.]

[Footnote 58: _Extracta e Cronicis Scocie_, p. 66.]

[Footnote 59: _History of Scotland_, vol. iii. p. 336.]

[Footnote 60: See Mr. Turnbull's Introductory Notice to the Abbotsford Club edition of the _Extracta_, p. xiv.]

[Footnote 61: _Extracta e Cronicis Scocie_, p. 66.]

[Footnote 62: Boece's _History and Chronicles of Scotland_, translated by John Bellenden, book xii. chap. 15, vol. ii. p. 294.]

[Footnote 63: _Scotorum Historiae_, lib. v. fol. cclxxii. First Paris Edition of 1526.]

[Footnote 64: _De Divinitate_, cap. 46.]