Publication Account

Date 1981

Event ID 1017990

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017990

Standing to the south of the cathedral is the 108 feet high (32.92m) tower and ruined choir of St. Regulus Church. Neither the nave nor the sanctuary which was attached to the choir survives above ground. It is 'quite the most interesting of the earlier churches in Scotland' with features of both the Norman and the pre-Norman tradition (RCAM. 1933, 228).

Robert, the first prior of Scone, elected Bishop of St. Andrews, undertook the building of the church soon after his 1126 x 1127 consecration. Work is said to have proceeded slowly, for it was not until 1144 that the greater part of the church was said to have been completed. In 1159 Bishop Robert was buried in the church which was soon super-ceded by the present cathedral. Little is known of the structure of St. Regulus after that date. It appears to have escaped the 'fury' of the Reformers, and it was not until 1789 that we hear of repairs, including the removal of loose stones and the addition of a stairway in the tower's interior. Further work was carried out on the tower in 1841 (Roger, 1849, 83).

Information from ‘Historic St Andrews: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1981).