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Field Visit
Date 18 September 1925
Event ID 1099048
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1099048
Parish Church, Leuchars.
Though the rest of it is modern, the chancel and apse of the parish church of Leuchars, which stands on a knoll to the east of the village, must be reckoned among the best of the few examples of Romanesque buildings in Scotland. The "church of Lochres" appears among the possessions of the Priory of St. Andrews in a papal confirmation of 1187, but has no place in one of 1183 (1). The possible period of erection would thus seem to be within the period 1183-87, and this date accords with the features of the structure. While still in its original condition, it was dedicated by Bishop Bernham in 1244, but the record does not give the name of the saint, who is usually said to have been Ather-naise or Ethernise.
The chancel is almost square. The apse is stilted and is ceiled with a vault, the timber roof above which was removed in the 17th century and replaced by a bell-turret. The original masonry is of cubical ashlar, built in courses sometimes as much as 14 inches high, and is diagonally axe-dressed in the interior, except for such details as shafts, which are vertically axed. As was usual in buildings of the type, the wall-heads are stepped, that of the chancel being lower than that of the nave but higher than that of the apse. There being neither parapet nor gutter, the wall-heads are brought forward on corbels wrought with heads of oxen, rams, and monsters, and with human grotesques. The walling is broken by a trigonal string-course, sculptured on the outer surface with fine scroll-work where it passes along the chancel, and with a saw-tooth on the apse. The continuation on the nave seems to have borne a damier pattern. Above and below the string-course the walls are arcaded, the lower arcade of the chancel being interlaced but plain, while the arches of the upper arcade are not interlaced but have a cable enrichment. On the apse the whole of the arches are richly ornamented with billet, chevron, and pearl ornaments. The shafts in the lower arcade of the apse are coursed. Elsewhere they are pillars.* Their bases are simply moulded and are of three patterns. Their capitals have square-edged abaci and are of cushion type, some being enriched with slightly voluted foliage . The windows, of which there are three in the chancel and three in the apse, are all in the upper arcade. They are narrow, with semi-circular heads, but are widely splayed internally.
The bell-turret abuts directly on the gable of the chancel and is borne on the vault of the apse. Its lower part is set back from the face of the apse wall while the upper part, which is octagonal on plan, is set back from that below. It is built of ashlar, with back-set margins at the belfry openings, and terminates in a domed stone roof, surmounted by a weathercock, apparently of lead.
As regards the interior, the chancel arch is lofty and narrow, being only 8 feet 10 ½ inches wide, and both it and its piers are in recessed orders, the arch itself being enriched with a damier pattern, a small 'chip carved' band, and a simple chevron. A moulded course, enriched on the upper and outer surfaces with a lozenge pattern, runs along the walls of the chancel at the level of the window sills. The windows, slightly bonnet-shaped, are provided with nook-shafts, and their arches have a cabled hood. The sanctuary arch, 8 feet 5 inches wide, has a billet enrichment, which is not common in Scotland, and its hood and inner orders are embellished with a chevron. Although perhaps less successful than that used in similar circumstances at Dalmeny [NT17NW 29], the method of vaulting the apse is interesting. At the true diameter on plan a semi-circular transverse arch springs from wall-shafts, which rise from the decorated sill-course. The area thus defined is covered in three ‘webs’, supported on stout ribs, simply moulded on three faces, which run as half arches up to the transverse arch. The remainder of the apse roof is an ordinary barrel-vault.
INCISED MARKINGS. On the western face of the north side of the sanctuary arch a cross, probably a consecration cross, is incised within a circle 8 inches in diameter. On the same face of the south side are two small crosses, 4 ½ inches and 3 inches in diameter, which are not likely to have been consecration crosses, while on the central member of the north jamb is cut a four-pointed star. In addition to these carvings there are numerous masons' marks.
[see RCAHMS 1933, 190-192 for a description of tombstones within the church]
RCAHMS 1933, visited 18 September 1925.
(1) Reg. Prior. S. And., p. 63; cf. p. 56 ff. Cf. Eccles. Arch., i, p. 309.
