Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017448
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017448
This precious gem of medieval architectural and social history stands close to the confluence of the Cluden Water and the River Nith. There are two distinct elements: the choir, south transept and fragment of the nave of an elegant collegiate church, and, extending northwards from the church sacristy, a rubble-built domestic and service range. On the east, the layout includes a restored formal knot garden and, immediately to the south, a tree-shrouded and terraced motte, which has obviously been part of the horticultural scheme.
How long the early castle mound remained in use for serious defensive purposes is not known, for a Benedectine nunnery was founded here, evidently by Uchtred (d. 1174), son of Fergus, Lord of Galloway. The nunnery was said to have been endowed to support up to ten nuns, but at the date of its suppression in 1389 it housed only four. In his papal petition to abolish the nunnery and erect in its place a collegiate church, Archibald, 3rd Earl of Douglas, claimed that the nuns lived 'disgracefully'; they 'do not trouble to repair the beautiful buildings, ... which are disfigured and ruinous through their sloth and neglect, but deck with fUle clothing and ornaments their daughters born on their immoralities whom they rear in common with them in the same monastery'.
His allegations were seemingly sustained, and authority was granted for the establishment of a college of secular priests whose main job would be to celebrate masses for the souls of the founder and his family. The staff of the college comprised a provost and eight prebendaries (priests), later increased to twelve, together with 24 bedesmen to serve the annexed poors' hospital at Holywood.
It is Douglas wealth which is now so sumptuously displayed in the surviving architecture and sculpture, but the claustral layout of the nunnery guided the planning of the collegiate establishment Authorship of the architecture may be attributed to John Morow, a Parisian-born master-mason whose work at Melrose Abbey was accompanied by an inscribed panel listing other Scottish commissions, including work in 'Nyddysdayl' (Nithsdale). The forms of the stone mouldings and window tracery show close affinities with Melrose, and would have coincided with the acquisition of French tastes and interests by the founders son, Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas and Duke of Touraine, who was killed at Verneuil in 1424. It is the effigy and tomb of his widow, Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of King Robert III, which takes pride of place on the north side of the choir, and her status is denoted by the magnificence of the tomb surround. Similar craftmanship is also shown in the surround of the adjacent sacristy door, and of the sedilia and piscina in the opposite wall. There is indeed a wealth of testimony to the stone-carvers art: note especially the ubiquitous heraldry, the angelmusicians at the bases of the vaulting-ribs, and the enriched cornice of the stone choir screen, itself a rare survival. A relief-sculptured panel portraying the Apostles was originally set on the parapet or rood loft above this screen and is now preserved in one on the vaults of the domestic range.
The southern half of the domestic block, originally three-storeyed and known as the Provost's Lodging, was probably built in the first half of the 15th century. The projecting stair-tower and the northern half of the range, which included a four-storeyed tower, is believed to have been the work of Provost William Stewart (1529-36). This range continued in use as a residence into the second half of the 17th century.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Dumfries and Galloway’, (1986).
