quarry, from which the public were accustomed to remove what they
pleased. The whole place, early in this century, is described as heaped
up with ruins and rubbish, so that even the ground plan could not be
made out, and the abbey was known in the locality as the “Wilderness.”
“This is now all changed; the rubbish has been cleared away down to the
basement, and the plan of the building is distinctly seen.... About
twenty-five years ago the foundations of a range of pillars, to the
height of several feet, running along the north side of the nave, were
laid bare by the partial removal of the rubbish by which they had been
concealed. They were of the same elegant design as those fragments
which remain; but very shortly after their discovery they were
ruthlessly removed.”[79]
[Illustration: FIG. 623.--Lindores Abbey. Gateway in Enclosing Wall,
from South-West.]
The abbey buildings (Fig. 622) consisted originally of a church, having
an aisleless choir about 42 feet long by 24 feet wide; a nave, with
north aisle, 132 feet in length by 40 feet in width; north and south
transepts, measuring from north to south 111 feet, and, including the
eastern aisle, 39 feet 6 inches wide; and a great tower at the
north-west angle of the nave, measuring about 37 feet 9 inches over the
buttresses.
To the south of the nave lay the cloister garth, with its surrounding
cloister walk, measuring over all 107 feet by 96 feet. The buildings
entering from the east side of the cloister are the best preserved parts
of the structure. Adjoining the south transept is the vaulted slype or
passage leading to the eastward. Next to it is the chapter house, 49
feet long by 24 feet 3 inches wide; and to the south of the chapter
house is a building 55 feet long by 32 feet wide over the walls, which
was probably the fratry or day-room of the monks. It is provided with
buttresses and windows on the east side. At the north end of this
apartment was the day staircase to the dormitory. The west and south
sides of the cloistral buildings are now almost reduced to the ruins of
a single wall on each side. Some traces of partition walls and
buttresses may be observed on the west side, but on the south side only
a doorway at the east end can be made out. The refectory doubtless lay,
as usual, on this side.
[Illustration: FIG. 624.--Lindores Abbey. Piscina in North Transept.]
The monastery was surrounded by a high wall, of which some portions
still exist. This wall contains a large entrance archway (Fig. 623),
with smaller footway at the south-west angle.
Of the church little but the foundation and some portions of the walls
survive. The outline of the exterior of the choir, with its buttresses,
can be clearly followed, but the interior has been stripped of its
ashlar work. A recess on the north side doubtless contained a tomb, and
some traces of the sedilia are visible. Two small coffins were found
buried in the choir, which are believed to have contained the remains of
two children of Earl David, the founder. The position of the east aisle
of the transepts can be traced, with its buttresses. The north and south
walls of the choir were carried, without openings, across the ends of
the transept aisle. The wall in the north transept contains a portion of
a double piscina (Fig. 624), one basin being scalloped and the other a
plain circle. Amongst the most interesting parts of the structure are
the foundations and one or two courses of the piers of the crossing.
These are well preserved, and show the first pointed mouldings of the
responds of the piers on three sides (Fig. 625), the mouldings being the
same in the piers of the arches which crossed the choir and transept,
and also in the arches of the transept aisle. They are all of fine first
pointed design. The base of the piers (Fig. 626) is also first pointed.
A doorway from the north-east angle of the cloister enters the church by
the south transept, and not, as usual, by the nave. A considerable part
of the south wall of the nave survives. It has small projections at
intervals along the south face, which probably carried an arcade. Fig.
627 shows the section of the bases of the west end of the church and the
tower.
[Illustration: FIG. 625.--Lindores Abbey.