St Bride's Chapel

Heritage listing

Category A Date Added 12/01/1971 Last Date Amended 03/08/2017 Local Authority South Lanarkshire Planning Authority South Lanarkshire Parish Douglas NGR NS 83601 30967 Coordinates 283601, 630967 — A late 13th or 14th century Gothic church choir rebuilt in 1878 by architect Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, after it was dismantled in 1781. It is single storey and rectangular in plan, built with coursed ashlar stone. The east gable of choir has a tall Y-traceried window, and there are Y-traceried windows on the south and north walls, the latter having been altered. There is a segmental-headed door inserted below the northwest window. The choir ends to the west with a blocked arch. There is stylised beakhead moulding (profile resembling that of a bird's beak) at the eaves of the slated roof. The interior of the choir was seen in 2014. There are three canopied tombs with carved stone effigies recessed in walls. On the north wall, near west corner, there is an effigy believed to be of Good Sir James Douglas (d.1331) below a 15th century pointed-arched cusped and crocketted ogival canopy carved of stone. At the east corner, there is a stone effigy of Archibald 5th Earl (d.1438) on a tomb chest with weepers (small figures representing members of the family in mourning) lining the front. On the south wall, there are effigies of James 7th Earl (d.1443) and Beatrice de Sinclair his wife, on a tomb chest with 10 weepers lining the front, under cusped and crocketted canopy. Latin inscriptions date the tomb to between 1448 and 1451. At the west gable there is an earlier female effigy in robes and with feet resting on foliage. There are two round-headed recesses in the east gable and a double piscina (a stone basin near the altar pre-Reformation churches for draining water used in the Mass)

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.