Publication Account
Date 1951
Event ID 1097484
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1097484
ST. MARGARET'S CHAPEL.
Upon the highest part of the summit stands the earliest and most interesting of the surviving buildings, St. Margaret's Chapel, which, if it could be proved to be contemporary with that Queen, would be the oldest extant church of the Roman rite in Scotland. The architectural evidence, however, suggests that, although possibly incorporating some undefined part of an earlier building, it was built by one or other of her two younger sons, Alexander and David. It is the only remnant of a group of buildings once associated with her name. Her chamber, for example, still existed in 1278 (46), while “Sanct Margareth's Tour” and “Zet” perished only in 1573. The chapel itself lost its identity after the Cromwellian siege and was put to secular use. Its rediscovery, which took place in 1845, was due to Sir Daniel Wilson; it was then occupied as a magazine, for which purpose a floor, served by a doorway in the gable, had been intruded at the W. end, while the whole E. end was covered by a comparatively modern garrison-chapel.
The building brought to light through Wilson's efforts was restored in 1853. On plan it is oblong, measuring externally 31 ft. 7 in. from E. to W. by 14 ft. 4 in. across the W. gable and 16 ft. across the E. one. It comprises a nave, 15 ft. 10 in. by 10 ft. 4 in., opening by a chancel arch 5 ft. 1 in. wide into an apsidal sanctuary, 9 ft. 7 in. long and 10 ft. wide, which is asymmetrical with the nave. Its outward appearance is certainly archaic, but the structure is loftier than when first built as, at some date after 1573, the rock was quarried away on three sides to improve the access to buildings then under construction to the E., and three sides of the chapel had then to be underpinned. Above the underpinning and below a later rebuilding of the wall-head, the original cubical ashlar facework remains as a band with a maximum height of ten courses, the cliff still rising intact on the N. side only. It is from that side that the chapel is entered. The entrance, situated at the W. end of the N. wall, has been restored. Farther E. can be traced a doorway apparently forced through the wall of the sanctuary. In course of time this opening fell out of use, and in the 18th century it was converted into a locker. In the E. gable is a Romanesque window with modern, dressings beneath a 17th-century window which has been built up. The S. wall contains three Romanesque windows, only the one on the W. being untouched. There is a fifth Romanesque window, with one side restored, high up in the W. gable as well as a built-up 17th-century doorway at the natural level of the rock. None of these primary windows is of the "double-splayed" variety still current in outlying regions at the close of the 11th century. All are single-splayed to the inside and have semi-circular heads, wrought from a single stone. The jambs and heads are chamfered and have a rebate for a shutter near the outside. The stained glass is modern; it was designed and executed by Douglas Strachan, LL.D., H.R.S.A.
The chapel is very plain internally, but on the testimony of Barbour (47) it was ornamented in the 14th century with at least one painted allegory said to have been left by Queen Margaret. To-day the walls are of exposed ashlars, all of which have been re-dressed. The nave, lit by one window to the W. and two to the S., was originally open to the timber roof but is now covered by a modern vault of ashlar. The chancel screen does not seem to have been bonded very closely into the side walls, a fact which has suggested that it might have been inserted into an earlier fabric; but the plan as a whole implies that there has always been a screen in this position, as its archway is centred with the nave and not with the sanctuary. Built in two orders, the archway has two nook-shafts on each side, both of which have been restored. The cushion-capitals, moulded bases and surbases are, however, original. The arch, also in two orders, both heavily enriched with a chevron pattern, rises from a three-sided impost-moulding and has a hood-moulding with a chip-carved pattern, that of the lowest voussoir on the left side differing from the rest. The back of the archway is plain. From its detail and design this screen cannot be earlier than the first decade of the 12th century and is more likely to date from 1110-20.
The apse of the sanctuary is stilted. The floor is raised on a step above the level of the nave. The roof is a semi-dome. Light is obtained from two windows facing respectively E. and S. The absence of a window on the N. seems to imply that an adjoining building originally stood outside. The N. wall contains an original locker, between which and the chancer arch is a press contrived from the embrasure of the doorway previously mentioned. In the S.E. side is a bracket-piscina, the bowl of which has been restored. Below the roadway to the S.W. two skeletons were found in 1912; they were uncoffined and lay side by side facing E. The smaller was certainly and the larger almost certainly male, and the larger had apparently belonged to a person of great stature. Both were fully developed but, in view of the condition of the teeth, could hardly have been of very advanced age.
RCAHMS 1951
(46) Registrum de Dunfermelyn, edn. Bannatyne Club, pp. 52-3.
(47) The Bruce, edn. S.T.S., x, 741-9.
