The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Midlothian (pre-1975 traditional (Scotland))
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.