Page:The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland ( Volume 3).djvu/397

 An opening about 8 feet wide, with a plain pointed freestone arch (Fig. 1312) resting on schist impost caps, gives access to a kind of trance or passage, having an ambry at the ground level on the left and a blocked up window on the right. It is formed between the north wall of the church and the south end of the chapter house, which is gabled independently of the church. Its only apparent use may have been as a sacristy. It is roofed in by large flat stones, with a rapid slope to the east. The east range of buildings is pretty complete, except on the north, where the gable fell some years ago. On the ground floor a large apartment, 19 feet 6 inches long by 15 feet 4 inches wide, with a doorway entering on the east cloister walk, was no doubt the chapter house.

The range of domestic buildings on the north has been sadly ruined, this having been the point where entry was obtained, in recent times, for the removal of materials, and thus of the north and south walls only fragments remain. A massive wall, still happily intact, encloses the cloister on the west. The internal area is rather over 41 feet square, with cloister walks about 7 feet broad, and the arcading presents some very singular features. The south arcade (Fig. 1313), which is evidently the most ancient, is composed of five low narrow arches with circular heads, very neatly turned with thin schist slabs, without any freestone or architectural dressing of any kind. The other three arcades were evidently part of a later restoration, and the peculiar form in which they were constructed is evidently due to the nature of the materials employed, viz., schist slabs of the same quality as that used for the sculptured slabs.

When Martin visited the island in the latter part of the seventeenth century, the three arcades and the enclosing walls were quite complete. A century later, in 1772, Pennant found the north arcade demolished with the exception of the end arches, while the east and west arcades remained intact. These subsequently disappeared also, and it was not until 1883 that Mr. Galloway found, scattered throughout the church and churchyard, sufficient materials to complete the restoration of one arcade. This was accordingly done on the west side (see Fig. 1313) in that year. Amongst the shafts and "pillars" found there were happily both of those mentioned by Martin as bearing inscriptions. The hewn work of these arcades was formed entirely of the peculiar kind of schist used in the sculptured crosses and memorial stones in the Western Highlands, and it may have been the facility of obtaining this material in the slab, rather than the cube form, which determined the special character of the arcading. Each arcade had openings or arches nearly 30 inches from centre to centre, there being seven in the east and west arcades, and probably one or two more in the north arcade. They were built with slab shafts, averaging 2 feet 10 inches high by 1 foot broad, and 2 or 3 inches thick, with neatly moulded and socketed caps and bases. On these