Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016213
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016213
Collegiate status was confirmed by James II to Sir Alexander Hume in 1450. The church may have been founded, however, in 1443, based on an earlier, probably private chapel of1403. Dedicated to the Virgin Mary, it had three chaplains (one of whom was also provost) and four choir boys or servers. By the 18th century it was used as a stable and barn.
Originally conceived without transepts and tower, the church was replanned as a cruciform structure before the vaulted roofs were laid. The stocky, square tower stands within, rather than above the crossing, presumably to give as wide transepts as possible. The choir, to which a priest's door enters from the south transept, retains an attractive triple sedilia (priest's seat) with corbels depicting winged and long-haired angels playing a harp and a lute. There are consecration crosses in the choir and sacristy, tomb recesses in the sacristy and transepts, and several 17th century tombstones in the north transept The tower, accessible it would seem only by a ladder to a doorway high above the west arch, had three storeys and a garret in the spire-the corbels once supporting the floor beams. Three tiers of holes in the vaults of the nave and choir, however, rather than supporting beams for scaffolding during construction are more likely to be later additions to support floors inserted when the church was secularised.
Dunglass was a key point on the north-south coastal route, strategically placed just north of the difficult Pease Burn gorge. Four bridges in all crossed the Dunglass Dean-two post-road bridges of1797 and 1798 (the first collapsed), a spectacular railway viaduct of c1840 and the A1 road bridge of 1931.
Information from 'Exploring Scotland's Heritage: Lothian and Borders', (1985).
