Page:The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland ( Volume 3).djvu/509

 It is only visible through a chink in the door of the tomb. There has been some kind of projection in the south wall near the centre, but owing to vegetation and rubbish (Fig. 1443) it cannot be properly examined, nor for the same reason can anything be made out regarding any openings in the south wall. Both of the side walls are considerably ruined. There is a slightly projecting splayed base at the east wall, with the usual set-off just below the gable.

The edifice was dedicated to St. Mechessock, and in 1198 the church of Auchterarder was given by Gilbert, third Earl of Strathearn, to the Abbey of Inchaffray, but the existing ruin belongs to a much later age.

A well at a short distance south from the church still bears "St. M'Kessog's" name, and on his day (10th March) the principal fair of the town is held. The church was served by a parochial curate appointed by the Abbot of Inchaffray.

CAMBUSMICHAEL CHURCH,.

Finely situated on one of the most beautiful reaches of the Tay, a little below the Linn of Camsie and opposite the village of Stanley, this ruined church, with its churchyard, occupies the end of a plateau which slopes suddenly down to the river on the north side, and to a deep

—Cambusmichael Church. Plan.

ravine on the east; so that, like most churches bearing the name of St. Michael, it stands on a height. The building, as will be seen from the Plan (Fig. 1444) and the view (Fig. 1445), is still in a fair state of preservation, although it is quite evident, on the spot, that the trees which crowd the inside (but which are not shown on the sketch) will soon work the destruction of the walls. One great trunk has half obtruded itself into the heart of the wall at the doorway, and has so burst the wall that the doorway and the whole of the south-west corner will probably soon