Detail of North sundial. Digital image of C 38633.

Description Detail of North sundial. Digital image of C 38633.

Date 5/1995

Catalogue Number SC 774351

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 38633

Scope and Content Detail of north sundial, Newbattle Abbey House, Midlothian This shows the dial stone of one of a pair of elaborately-carved octagonal sandstone sundials made in 1635 and situated in the formal garden. Bronze gnomons (the metal blade which casts a shadow onto the dials) and numbered panels are set above a row of carved emblems relating to the Kerr family. The panel (right) has an unusual sort of sundial which uses the cast shadows of two sculptured profiles to indicate the time. The sundials bear the initials 'E W L' for William, Earl of Lothian, and 'C A L', for Annie, Countess of Lothian, as well as family coats-of-arms. The many dials would have told the time in various European capital, and the dials would be seen as interesting scientific devices as well as decorative garden ornaments. Newbattle Abbey was founded by Cistercian monks in 1140, and its church dedicated to St Mary in 1233-4. It became a private residence in 1587 when the last abbot, Mark Kerr, converted to Protestantism and was able to retain his lands. His son became Lord Newbattle in 1596. The remains of the abbey are built into the surviving house, which was modified and rebuilt by the architects John Mylne (1650), William Burn (1836) and David Bryce (1858). The house was gifted to the nation in 1937 to be used as a further education college. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/774351

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap