This is one of the best preserved of the old churches of Scotland, and
although it has suffered severely by various renovations and
restorations, it is still a building of very considerable interest. The
church occupies a high situation on the Castle Hill, and as approached
up the steep streets, the lofty east end which first appears to view,
with its prominent buttresses and tall windows, has a most imposing and
picturesque effect.[126] The edifice consists of two divisions, the nave
and choir, which were built at two different periods. The nave, which is
the oldest part, is undoubtedly the church referred to in the
Chamberlain’s Accounts for the year from July 1413 to June 1414, in
which he “discharges himself of the issues of ayre held at Stirling,
because it was granted to the work of the parish church which had been
burnt.” Of the earlier church which had been burnt nothing now remains.
The date of the east end or choir is known to be between 1507 and 1520.
The building (Fig. 1238) consists, from end to end, of a central nave
with north and south aisles (the aisles being vaulted in stone), an
eastern apse, and a western tower. The nave has five bays, the choir
three bays, and they are separated by a wide bay, which may be termed
the crossing. The crossing now serves as an entrance hall to the two
churches which are located in the edifice, walls being built across each
side of the crossing so as to enclose the choir as one church and the
nave as the other. The total internal length of the building, exclusive
of the apse and tower, is about 160 feet by about 55 feet in width;
including apse and tower the internal length is about 200 feet.
The original entrance to the church was through the western tower, and
as the ground rises considerably towards the west, there must have been
steps down to the floor of the nave. The western doorway was destroyed
in 1818, when the sill of the window above was lowered into the space
occupied by the door arch, but the bases and lower part of the door
jambs still remain (Fig. 1239). The tower, which is vaulted, opens into
the nave (as at Linlithgow) through a lofty pointed arch, springing from
moulded responds (Fig. 1240).
[Illustration: FIG. 1238.--Stirling Parish Church. Plan.]
[Illustration: FIG. 1239.--Stirling Parish Church. Tower, from
South-West.]
[Illustration: FIG. 1240.
Stirling Parish Church.