Scottish Cathedrals and Abbeys by Dugald Butler

Author:Dugald Butler [Butler, Dugald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cathedrals -- Scotland, Abbeys -- Scotland, Church architecture -- Scotland
Published: 2007-06-05T16:00:00+00:00

St. Andrew's Priory.—The priory or Augustinian monastery was situated to the south of the cathedral (q.v.), and was founded by Bishop Robert in 1144. The structure has now almost disappeared. It comprised about twenty acres, and was enclosed about 1516 by Prior John Hepburn with a magnificent wall, which, starting at the north-east corner of the cathedral, passed round by the harbour and along behind the houses, till it joined the walls of St. Leonard's College on the south-west.

This, about a mile in extent, is all that now remains, but it is thought at one time to have passed back from the college to the cathedral. The wall has thirteen turrets, and each has a canopied niche for an image. The portion towards the shore has a parapet on each side, as if designed for a walk. There were three gateways, the chief of which, on the S.W., is known as the Pends, and of which considerable ruins still remain. Another gateway is near the harbour, and the third was on the S. side. Martine in his Reliquiæ Divi Andreæ mentions that in his time fourteen buildings were discernible besides the cathedral and St. Rule's Chapel. Among these were the Prior's House or the old inn to the S.E. of the cathedral, of which only a few vaults now remain; the cloisters, W. of this house, and now the garden of a private house, in the quadrangle of which the Senzie Fair used to be held, beginning in the second week of Easter, and continuing for fifteen days; the Senzie House, or house of the sub-prior, subsequently used as an inn, but now pulled down and the site occupied by a private house. The refectory was on the S. side of the cloister, and has now disappeared, as well as the dormitory between the Prior's House and the cloister, and from which Edward I. carried off all the lead to supply his battering machines at the siege of Stirling. The Guests' Hall was within the precincts of St. Leonard's College, S.W. of Pend's Lane; the Teinds' Barn, Abbey Mill, and Granary were all to the S.W. The new inn, the latest of all the buildings, was erected for the reception of Magdalene, the first wife of James V. The young queen, of delicate constitution, was advised by her physicians to reside here; she did not live to occupy the house, as she died on 7th July 1537, six weeks after her arrival in Scotland. It was for a short time the residence of Mary of Guise when she first arrived in Scotland, and after the priory was annexed to the archbishopric in 1635 the building became the residence of the later archbishops. Several of its canons had sympathies with the Scottish Reformation. The prior of St. Andrews had superiority over the priories of Pittenweem, Lochleven, Monymusk, and the Isle of May, and was also a lord of regality. In Parliament he took precedence of all priors, and he, his sub-prior, and canons formed the cathedral chapter.

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