[Illustration: FIG. 931.--Old St. Duthus’ Church. Plan.]
The ancient town of Tain claims to have received its first privileges
from Malcolm Canmore in the eleventh century. It was also the site of an
early church, and St. Duthus, the patron saint of the town, is reputed
to have been the Bishop of Ross in the eleventh century. The existing
town stands at a point near the entrance to Dornoch Frith, on an ancient
sea margin, which rises above a great expanse of sandy links stretching
eastwards towards the sea. It possesses no less than three ancient
churches, all said to have been dedicated to St. Duthus. This saint
probably lived about the year 1000, and his remains are said to have
been translated to his native town of Tain in 1253.[186] The most
ancient church (Fig. 931) stands on a knoll which rises above the
general level of the links. It is now surrounded by a well kept modern
cemetery, and is at some distance from the town, but is believed to have
stood in the midst of the houses of the older Tain, which occupied the
low ground near the sea. This ancient fane is a simple parallelogram, 46
feet long by 16 feet 6 inches wide internally. Three of its walls (Fig.
932), which are all built with the granite boulders of the district, and
the east and west gables are still almost entire, but the south wall is
reduced to a state of ruin. The north, east, and west walls, which are
much exposed to the storms from the sea, are without any openings,
except a small pointed window in the west gable. The doorway and windows
seem to have been in the south wall, which may account for its ruinous
condition. The one small window remaining in that wall, and the pointed
window in the west gable, indicate a date not earlier than the
thirteenth century. Besides these there are no features to give a clue
to the date of the structure; but the period they point to agrees with
the time when the body of St. Duthus is believed to have been brought
here for burial.
The shrine of St. Duthus was regarded as specially sacred, and possessed
the right of sanctuary. To it the wife and daughter of King Robert I.
betook themselves when compelled to flee from Kildrummy Castle, in
Aberdeenshire. But the sacred nature of the sanctuary did not avail the
royal fugitives, and they were delivered up to Edward by the Earl of
Ross.
[Illustration: FIG. 932.--Old St. Duthus’ Church. View from South-West.]
It is believed that this church was destroyed by fire in 1429; M‘Neill
of Creich, having pursued his enemies thither, took that means of
evading the right of sanctuary. He did not seize his enemies within the
sacred ground, but set fire to the church in which they had taken
refuge.
The second church in point of antiquity is a small quadrangular
structure (Fig. 933) which stands near the principal church, and to the
south-east of it, on the higher ground adjacent to the modern town. It
is 32 feet long by 13 feet wide within the walls, which are now reduced
to about 6 to 7 feet in height all round. The north wall appears to have
been rebuilt, for Mr. Neale describes it in his _Ecclesiological
Notes_[187] as being ruinous, but having one lancet. The east end
contains a triplet enclosed in one arch, and the south side has a door
and a two-light window under one arch. These features point to the date
of this chapel as being early, but it is scarcely possible to fix a
definite time. It is, however, apparently earlier than 1429, the date of
the burning of St. Duthus’ Church on the links, and it is thought that
this may have been the original parish church. The adjoining larger
church is recorded as having been a rebuilding of a previous church, and
it seems most probable that the building now under consideration was the
earlier church.
As regards the third church (see Fig. 933), which was undoubtedly
dedicated to St. Duthus, chronicles declare it to have been built by
William, Earl of Ross, who died in 1371. In 1487 James III. procured
from the Bishop of Ross and the Pope sanction for converting it into a
collegiate establishment for a provost, five canons, two deacons, a
sacrist, with an assistant clerk, and three singing boys. This
institution was liberally endowed out of the crown lands, and, after the
death of James III., an annual sum was paid out of the royal
treasury.[188]
[Illustration: FIG. 933.--St. Duthus’ Church. Plan.]
In the _Treasurer’s Accounts_ for 1504 there are entries which seem to
point to all three churches as being then still in existence. These
entries show that on 23rd October of that year the king made an offering
of 14s. “in Sanct Duchois Chapell quhair he was borne” (no doubt meaning
the place where the saint was born, or the old church on the links);
also, “in Sanct Duchois Chapell in the Kirk-yard of Tayne” (referring,
probably, to the second, or original, parish church); and also, “in
Sanct Duchoils Kirk” (which may be the College Kirk as distinguished
from the Parish Church).
The Collegiate Church stands in a pleasant situation overlooking the
sea, on the raised beach to the north of the town, and is surrounded by
a burying-ground.
St. Duthus’ was an ancient and favourite place of pilgrimage, and the
old church having been consumed, this new one would, after its erection,
be doubtless the celebrated shrine to which James IV. and V. made their
pilgrimages.
The former king is believed to have gone there every season for at least
twenty years, as part of the penance he performed in connection with his
father’s death. He visited St. Duthus’ in 1513, before his last fatal
expedition, which closed with the Battle of Flodden. In 1527 James V.
made the pilgrimage of St. Duthus’ barefoot, a memento of which event is
preserved in the name of the “King’s Causeway,” by which a road near the
town is known.
The Collegiate Church (Fig. 933) is 70 feet long by 22 feet 6 inches
wide internally. It contains four bays, distinguished externally by
buttresses of good form (Fig. 934). Each bay contains one window, those
of the south or sheltered side being large and filled with tracery;
while those in the north wall, which is exposed to the sea, are small
plain lancets, with hood moulding. The windows in the east and west
walls are large and filled with tracery, having five and four lights
respectively, divided by mullions. The tracery of the east window, which
has been renewed, is of geometric form, while that of the west window
consists of simple intersecting mullions. The tracery of the south side
windows is of similar design. The west gable contains two niches, one on
each side of the arch of the window. The statue of a bishop (possibly
St. Duthus) still exists in the north niche. There is a doorway in the
westmost bay on each side. They are similar and of good design. A small
benitier projects from the wall on the outside close to the north door.
The south door has had a large porch, the mark of the water table being
still visible.
The interior contains a triple sedilia and a piscina in the south wall
of good pointed and trefoiled pattern, and there is a small ambry in the
north wall.
In Neal’s _Ecclesiological Notes_ the church is termed an example of
middle pointed architecture, although its date, as generally happens in
the North, is considerably later than any work of that period in
England.
From the Reformation till 1815 this edifice was used as the parish
church. A new church being then erected, the old one was abandoned and
suffered neglect. When Mr. Neal visited it in 1848, he found it in the
following condition[189]:--“It has been fitted up as a place of
Presbyterian worship; galleries, gaudily painted, run round it; pews of
every size and shape and colour pollute it; but it is now deserted. The
smell of decaying wood, the exhalations from the vaults, the dampness,
the rottenness, the horrible filth, the green mould, the decaying baize,
the deserted appearance of the whole render this a shocking place.”
This disgraceful condition of the church attracted public attention,
[Illustration: FIG. 934.--St. Duthus’ Church. View from South-West.]
and, by the exertions of the late Provost M‘Leod and other gentlemen in
the district, its cleansing and restoration were undertaken and
completed in 1877, and the building is now set apart for monumental and
memorial purposes. The old stonework has been preserved and slightly
restored where necessary, and the roof has been renewed. The windows are
filled with memorial stained glass, and the whole is kept in excellent
order.
A pulpit is said to have been presented to Tain by the Regent Murray, as
a mark of his appreciation of the zeal of the town in the cause of the
Reformation. Mr. Taylor informs us[190] that this valuable relic was
“suffered to be broken, and its ornamentation carried away piecemeal by
wanton hands;” but it has now been restored, so far as the fragments
again brought together have enabled this to be done, and forms an
ornamental feature in the restored church.