The shields, both on the gable outside and on the tomb inside, seem to
have been carelessly executed from an impression of the arms, thus
placing everything in the reverse way; so that what in the original is
on the dexter side of the shield is here on the sinister, a bend is
converted into a bend sinister, and so throughout.
The two shields on the porch are--1st, Forrester; 2nd, Forrester
impaling Wigmer.
The sacristy, on the north side of the chancel, enters by a plain
lintelled door between the two tombs (see Fig. 1172). It has a rough
pointed barrel vault, and looks, from there being windows at two levels,
as if it had contained two stories. The sill of the east window projects
about 11 inches; and Mr. Muir considers it, without doubt, to have been
an altar.[114] Adjoining this window is a piscina, with the orifice of
its drain wrought on the base mouldings outside.
As regards the architecture of the church, it accords well with the
other collegiate structures of the latter half of the fifteenth century.
The perpendicular tracery in the east window of the chancel and the
south window of the transept (see Figs. 1173 and 1181) is remarkable,
such tracery being very uncommon in Scotland. These two large windows
are recessed in the wall, the outer jambs having two or three broad
splays. The side windows have the tracery flush with the outer face of
the wall.
The buttresses have the usual numerous set-offs. They have now finials,
consisting of cubic stones carved as sundials; but, as Mr. T. S. Muir
states, these are modern additions, the buttresses having doubtless been
originally pinnacled above the eaves.
The tower to the west of the transept (Fig. 1182) is one of the most
characteristic features of the structure. It measures externally about
18 feet 6 inches from north to south by 17 feet 3 inches from east to
west. The tower has a door to the church, and also a west doorway. It
thus formed an entrance porch to the building; but another porch has
been added to the west, which is vaulted and covered with a stone roof.
The tower is built with ashlar, and rises, without buttresses, to the
eaves. A two-light window is introduced on each face under the cornice.
Above the tower there is a stone spire of the stunted description usual
at the period. Four pinnacles give some relief to the angles at the base
of the spire. The latter is divided by battlemented string courses into
three stories, and has lucarnes in the middle story.
After the Reformation the collegiate church became the church of the
parish in 1593, and has so continued ever since.