[Illustration: FIG. 949.--Faslane Church. Plan.]
This ruined structure is situated in a retired spot on the Gareloch, a
branch of the Frith of Clyde, and about one mile from Garelochhead. It
has consisted of a single chamber (Fig. 949), measuring about 37 feet 10
inches long by 17 feet 9 inches wide inside. The walls are in a very
broken down condition, but, fortunately, the east gable is well
preserved. From the style, the building would at once, except in the
West Highlands, be considered of thirteenth century date, but in that
locality it may have been somewhat later.
There are two lancet windows in the east end (Fig. 950), a Plan of which
is given to a large scale (Fig. 951), from which, and from the interior
view (Fig. 952), it will be seen that they are widely splayed towards
the interior, and have round arches, slightly flattened on the top.
[Illustration: FIG. 950.--Faslane Church. East End.]
[Illustration: FIG. 951.--Faslane Church. Plan of Lancet Windows.]
In the north wall, adjoining the east end, there is the usual ambry,
chocked for a door. Alongside the ambry are the remains of a window
jamb. Probably the entrance was in the south wall, near the west end.
[Illustration: FIG. 952.--Faslane Church. Interior of East End.]
In the thirteenth century the castle of Faslane occupied an almost
impregnable summit, at the junction of two glens. “Near to the castle
there was a chapel, dedicated, it is supposed, to St. Michael, with a
burying-ground attached, and, a little beyond it, a mound, where the
priest’s house is reported to have stood.”[193] This church was probably
that now illustrated. The old castle was originally occupied by the
Earls of Lennox or members of their family, but, before 1400, it was
forsaken for Inchmurran, in Loch Lomond. In the fourteenth century Alan
of Faslane married Margaret, the only daughter of Donald, the sixth
earl, and so acquired the honours of the earldom. In the sixteenth
century Faslane was feued to Archibald M‘Aulay of Ardincaple; and about
the middle of the eighteenth century the ruined castle furnished a
shelter to the last representative of that family.