The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
City of Edinburgh (now)
Parish church
The present church is essentially of late medieval date; there is no evidence for a church on the site before the 12th century. A Romanesque doorway survived as the N nave entrance until 1797/8 but is now known only from an engraving. Just one carved stone, a scallop capital, appears to have survived from the first church. Another stone, sculpted with a head and leaves, has been by some attributed to the 12th-century, but it is actually of later date. It was found in 1981 during excavations in the S choir aisle, in the foundations under the E wall. A head boss at the W end of the choir vault has also occasionally been mentioned, but again it is of later medieval date. Several changes to the church and various restorations were undertaken after the medieval period, culminating with a major re-organisation of the interior in the years 1872-83 and the addition of the Thistle Chapel in 1910-11.
Parish church
The earliest parts of the church consist of an unaisled nave and W tower, which includes a spiral stair in the SE corner. There was likely also an eastern chancel, but this no longer exists. Early doorways survive in the S nave wall (now blocked) and E wall (moved from the N side of the church). Large sections of the church walls are medieval, but there have been several additions and other interventions over the centuries. A projecting burial wing on the SE corner of the nave, called the ‘Stair Aisle’ was built in the 17thc, as well as the upper part of the W tower and belfry above its eastern wall. The interior was re-designed in the 19thc. However, a gothic arch (now blocked) can be seen on the N side of the E end of the nave, and there is another arch from the Transitional period in the E wall of the W tower. Drawings show that a post-Reformation exterior staircase was built onto the S side of the W end of the nave, with a doorway inserted into the gallery level. This has subsequently been taken down, the doorway removed and a Romanesque-style doorway built at ground-floor level. In 1822 an aisle was added to the N side of the nave and the old N doorway rebuilt in the gable of this aisle. But in 1884 the aisle was extended and the doorway moved to the E wall of the church, where it became the principle entrance to the church.
Parish church
Duddingston Parish Kirk is located about two miles from the centre of Edinburgh (to which the village now belongs), on the side of Duddingston Loch. The church appears to have originally been built as a two-chambered, aisleless structure, as the W tower and the N aisle were added later. Although there is no document which refers to the building of the church, a date in the 2nd quarter of the 12thc would fit the surviving references, as would the decoration.
In 1598, during a visitation of the church by the Presbytery of Edinburgh, the choir of the church is mentioned as somewhat ruinous. The first documented work on the church comes in 1631, when it was agreed to build an aisle for the owners of the Prestonfield estate. Work was undertaken in 1806, this time on the W tower and N aisle, and about 1835 the church was again enlarged and repaired. Further alterations were carried out in 1889 and in 1968, primarily on the interior.
The Romanesque S nave doorway (now blocked), the chancel arch, the exterior stringcourse and possibly some of the external corbels of the chancel, the external bases and part of a cross survive from the original 12thc building.
Parish church
Dalmeny church is a four-cell building consisting of a west tower, nave, vaulted chancel and vaulted apse. The original west tower seems to have collapsed in the fifteenth century and was subsequently re-built on the same ground plan in 1937, preserving the original sides of the tower arch (capitals and bases) leading into the nave. Four corbels which were found when the tower arch blocking stone was removed have been re-used on the interior of the tower. In 1671, much of the eastern part of the north wall of the nave was taken down to form a new aisle and this area was again altered in 1816. The twelfth-century parts of the church are built from a local sandstone, which on the interior of the church is a soft, light brown, but on the exterior has weathered to a light grey. Both on the interior and on the exterior faces of the walls, the stone is of coursed ashlar and of high quality. In the 18th century, the nave walls were lowered and the chancel walls heightened to form a continuous roof line, but these were put back to their original levels in the restoration work carried out between 1927 and 1937. In addition, some of the windows had had the inner orders taken out to create more light in the 18th century and these windows were restored back to their original form during the restorations. Only one window in the main part of the church is entirely modern, that west of the south entrance, which was inserted in the 18th century to allow light into the gallery (since removed) which had been built at the west end of the nave. In the apse, a tomb niche was inserted into the south interior wall at some point subsequent to the twelfth century.
On the interior, both the chancel arch and the apse arch are elaborately decorated with chevron patterns and there are head corbels carrying both rib vaults, but it is the south exterior entrance which has the most elaborate decoration, though badly weathered. This consists of a doorway with voussoirs carved with various figures and heads, and an upper zone carved with interlacing arcading surmounted by head corbels. In addition, there are three original, heavily decorated windows on the apse, two on the chancel walls and three on the nave walls. Original exterior corbels survive in situ on the chancel, apse and above the south entrance, and there is a 12thc sarcophagus outside the church.
The west tower of the church is thought to have fallen c.1480, at which time the tower arch was filled with rubble. Four romanesque corbels, found when the tower was rebuilt in 1937, were inserted into the west interior wall of the tower above the tower arch. Sometime before 1604 a loft was built into the west end of the nave. Around 1671, part of the north nave wall was taken down to build a north aisle (called the Rosebery aisle), while in 1766 the exterior wall walls of the choir were heightened and the nave walls decreased in height so that the roof continued unbroken across both. Sometime also in the later 18th century, a new window was inserted on the south side of the nave, west of the doorway, to allow light into the loft. In 1816, a gallery was built in the Rosebery aisle and a plaster ceiling in imitation of the stone vaulting in the eastern parts was constructed over the nave (since removed). About the same time, a porch which had been built in front of the south nave doorway, the roofline still in evidence, was taken down, along with the removal of the south chancel doorway. In 1832 a new west belfry was added. Restoration work on the church was finally carried out between 1927 and 1937, at which time the pews and west loft were also removed. A new west tower was also built onto the west end during these restorations after some discussion of the form it should take. Finally, in or before 1948, A.J. Turner undertook a study of masons’ marks in the church.
Parish church
The church has undergone numerous changes throughout the past, but still incorporates masonry of 12thc. date. The base course with chamfered edge, presumably from the Romanesque church remains in part on the exterior of the W front and the lower part of a blocked doorway on the N side of the nave can still be seen. The most significant surviving section of the early church is part of a blocked doorway on the S exterior of the nave, west of the later (1830) S extension. There is evidence above the doorway of at least two phases of construction. The church interior was re-ordered in 1932 and nothing Romanesque is now to be seen inside.
Museum
Until the mid-20thc., the stoup was found placed against the N wall of the only surviving section of a chapel built in the 13thc. for the Sinclair family. There is no record known of how and when the stoup made its way into this building. In the mid-1950s, the stoup was given to the National Museum of Scotland, where it remains.
Museum
The church at Kirknewton was united with that of East Calder in 1750 and a new church built elsewhere. In about 1780, the majority of the old church appears to have been taken down. The following year, a voussoir with chevron and erotic figures was given to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
Museum
The block of stone, carved with circle and interlace on both main faces, is now part of the National Museum of Scotland Collection. According to the 1892 Museum inventory description, it came from the churchyard at Mid Calder and was given to the museum in 1883. Its inventory number is IB 129.
Castle chapel
The chapel is historically described as being dedicated to St.Margaret, queen of Scotland, who died in 1093. The structure is built as a slightly irregular rectangle on plan; internally it consists of a barrel-vaulted nave and a semi-domed apsidal sanctuary which is slightly out of line with the nave. There is a decorated chancel arch between the two chambers. Sometime after 1573, the rock around three sides of the chapel was quarried away and these walls underpinned. After the Cromwellian seige, the chapel lost its identity and was put to secular use. By the 1840s, when the chapel was rediscovered, the building had been divided by another floor and was being used as a powder magazine. Subsequent to this, the chapel was restored and the later floor removed. On the north side of the eastern chancel, there is evidence of a doorway which went through the wall, but this was later blocked on the exterior of the chapel to form a locker/cupboard. It has been suggested that the chapel is all that remains of a larger building. The only decoration surviving is on the chancel arch.