Publication Account

Date 1996

Event ID 1018570

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018570

The steeple is situated opposite the NE end of High Street, at its junction with Kirkgate and Cove Wynd. It is 5.2m square on plan, with a circular stair-tower projecting from the NE wall, and its main (SW) front is continuous with the SW gable of the parish church. It is offive principal stages, the four lower ones being ofharled rubble with sandstone dressings. The fifth stage, which is corbelled out from the main wall-line, and the spire that it carries, are of coursed ashlar, and were probably added in the early 17th century.

The smaller windows have chamfered surrounds, while the first-floor window in the SW front has a roll-and-hollow moulding, and the NW one a plain surround. The latter opening appears to have been rebuilt, probably in the 18th century. Below some of the windows in the NW front and the stair-tower there are small round vents which may have been inserted in the sills as gun-loops.

The added fifth stage, which houses the clock and bells, is surmounted by an elaborate corbelled parapet with groups of three balusters set between panelled central and angle-pillars. The central pillar of the SW front bears three stylised thistles in relief, and the pillars are surmounted by obelisks decorated with a fish-scale or tree motif. The waterspouts ofthe parapet are treated as fictive gun-barrels, presumably intended to give the building a military aspect. Each face of the hexagonal spire has a lucarne, set alternately high or low, and the three lower ones have balustered surrounds surmounted by small obelisks like those of the parapet. The weather-cock may be the new one that was ordered in 1739.

The rounded stair-projection that provides access to the upper floors is entered by a NW doorway reached by a short flight of steps. Its cap-house is corbelled out to a rectangle at the same level as the added fifth stage of the tower and is of similar ashlar-construction. Its gabled roof, which abuts the spire, is covered with stone slabs and has a crown finial set on the ridge. Access from the stair to the SE parapet is by a square-headed and pedimented doorway with chamfered jambs.

The ground storey, which is barrel-vaulted and earth floored, is entered by a doorway in the SW front and has no access to the upper floors, although there are openings, presumably for bell-ropes, in the vault. Internally the building has few features of particular note, but there are square aumbries in the first- and second-floor rooms set close to their access-doorways. The first-floor room is partly divided by modem wooden partitions. A blocked doorway at this level gave access to a gallery in the church. In the NE angle at third-floor level there is a small closet hacked into the wall which may have served as a privy. The clock-openings have splayed internal jambs and are segmental-headed. The junction of the tower and the spire is marked internally by corbelled set-offs at each angle.

The belfry houses a clock made in 1858, which was repaired in 1966. It replaced a clock made in 1773 by a celebrated local clockrnaker, John Smith, at a cost of £25. The older of the two bells, which measures 0.65m in diameter, is inscribed in Swedish: HAFVER SIORAN PVTENS EFTER LATNA ENKA LATITGIVTAAR 1663 ('Cast by the late Joran Putensen's widow and successor in the year 1663'). It is decorated with scroll-work, fillets, a medallion of a half-length figure, and what appears to be a fish. Putensen was a Danishborn bell-founder who worked in Stockholm. The curfew bell measures 0.54m in diameter and is inscribed: FOR THE BURGH OF PITTENWEEM 1742.

On stylistic grounds a late 16th-century date is probable for the lower stages of the tower. The top stage and the spire probably belong to the second quarter of the 17th century, and 'the bertisene of the steeple' was decorated with flags in honour of Charles IJ in 1651. The steeple was used for the detention of alleged witches in 1704, and there are references to the 'thieve's hole', perhaps the ground floor of the tower, and a 'dark dungeon'.

Information from ‘Tolbooths and Town-Houses: Civic Architecture in Scotland to 1833’ (1996).