Brechin Cathedral: A Medieval Scottish Cathedral and Historic Church
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- British, Kingdom of Scotland
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page12 sections
History
Brechin Cathedral is a former cathedral in the United Kingdom, built as a medieval Scottish church with construction beginning shortly after 1200 in the Early Gothic style. Dedicated to the Holy Trinity, it belonged to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brechin before its nave became a parish church of the Church of Scotland after the Scottish Reformation. The building ceased to function as a sanctified church after its final service on 28 November 2021.
Early Christian and medieval foundations
The date of Brechin’s first church is unknown. Place-names such as Kilmoir and Botherkil suggest that a church existed in the area by the early eighth century. A later tradition attributes an early Christian cell to a Pictish hermit named Dubhoc, or Duthoc, in the late sixth or early seventh century. Culdees, early medieval Christian clerical communities associated with Scotland and Ireland, were active in the region by the ninth century.
The earliest secure written reference comes from the reign of Kenneth II of Scotland, approximately 971 to 995, when he granted estates to the monastic community at Brechin. From the tenth century, the bishopric was hereditary. During the twelfth century, a single Celtic family held the offices of lay abbot, bishop, and prior. A lay abbot was a non-clerical holder of an abbey’s administrative authority.
This hereditary system ended in 1178, when Turpin, of Anglo-Norman origin, became the first non-hereditary bishop. He had been appointed by William I of Scotland and succeeded Samson, who had been bishop from 1141 to 1174. David I of Scotland is also associated with the establishment of the bishopric in the mid-twelfth century. By 1214, a cathedral chapter, the body of clergy associated with a cathedral, existed at Brechin. By about 1225, the Culdees had been replaced or reorganized as canons of the chapter.
Cathedral construction and medieval changes
Construction of the cathedral probably began shortly after 1200, possibly during the episcopate of Ralph, bishop from 1198 to 1212. The work was substantially completed during the episcopate of Bishop Gregory, who died in 1246. The choir and western entrance were probably finished around 1225. The cathedral may have occupied the site of a tenth-century Culdee church, with parts of that earlier building incorporated into the later structure.
The square tower was begun around 1250 and had reached only its fourth storey by the end of the thirteenth century. Its ground floor probably served as the chapter house. During the Scottish Wars of Independence, Edward I of England removed the cathedral’s lead roof in 1303 and used it as counterweight for the War Wolf, a large medieval siege engine, during the siege of Brechin Castle. In 1305, he donated fifty loads of lead and twelve oak trees for repairs.
The transepts were built in the 1340s, giving the cathedral a cruciform plan, and a north entrance porch was added. The square tower was heightened and given a spire later in the fourteenth century. The Round Tower also received its spire during this period.
Reformation, rebuilding, and later use
After the Scottish Reformation of 1560, the cathedral was neglected, while the nave continued in parish use. By 1806, the choir was in a deplorable condition and the side chapels had collapsed. The chapels, the nave’s north and south walls, the porch, and the transepts were removed. A wider church in a Georgian Gothic style was then constructed, with a new nave ceiling and galleries.
The Scottish architect John Honeyman restored the cathedral between 1899 and 1902, with the aim of bringing it closer to its original appearance. In 1971, the building became a Category A listed building, the highest level of protection for a listed building in Scotland. The Round Tower became a scheduled monument in 1996, a designation used for sites legally protected because of archaeological or historical importance. The Church of Scotland manages the cathedral, while Historic Scotland manages the Round Tower.
In February 2020, the Presbytery of Angus approved the transfer of ownership to the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland, with the intention of closing and selling the building. A planned commemoration of the cathedral’s 800th anniversary in June 2020 could not take place because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Remains
Brechin Cathedral is a small Gothic, or Pointed-style, church oriented from east to west, with the choir at the eastern end. It stands north of Skinners Burn and retains a cruciform plan in its surviving arrangement, although the transepts were demolished in 1806 and later work changed the building. The fabric combines medieval masonry with extensive nineteenth- and early twentieth-century rebuilding.
Cathedral fabric
The square western tower combines work from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Its lower portion and the nave pillars are thirteenth-century, while the upper tower and choir are fifteenth-century. Much of the remaining structure dates from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At the western end, a thirteenth-century entrance opens into the nave, and the western gable contains a prominent Gothic window. The Early Gothic west portal is among the most elaborate surviving features.
Other surviving original elements include the western gable, the much-truncated choir, the nave pillars and clerestory, the western door, and the massive square tower. A clerestory is the upper part of a church wall, with windows above the main roofline. On the southern side is a south transept, while the enlarged north transept is known as the Queens Aisle. A north entrance porch lies between the square tower and the Queens Aisle. The cathedral contains 39 stained-glass windows. The earliest dates from 1902, and the building has more windows by William Wilson than any other building in Scotland. The modern glass in the chancel, the area containing the main altar and clergy space, is regarded as among the finest in Scotland.
Round Tower
The Round Tower stands immediately southwest of the cathedral. Originally freestanding, it is now joined to the church. Built in an Irish style in the late eleventh century, it is approximately 26 metres high and made of sandstone. Its external diameter is about 5 metres, its internal diameter is 2.4 metres, and its base has a circumference of approximately 15.3 metres.
The tower has a polygonal stone spire about 5.5 metres high, added in the fourteenth century, and a stone roof installed in the fifteenth century. Seven wooden floors were supported internally by corbels. Small windows face east and south on the third and fourth storeys. The upper storey has four windows, enlarged in the seventeenth century when several bells were installed. The tower’s original function is uncertain. Its most probable primary role was as a bell tower, with a secondary role in safeguarding liturgical valuables.
Carved western doorway
A single western entrance is raised 1.8 metres above ground level. The doorway is approximately 60 centimetres wide and 1.8 metres high, formed from four large stones. Its panels show carved fantastic animals, saints, and a Crucifixion scene. A fantastic creature appears at the bottom on each side, with the left figure apparently holding a human bone in its mouth. Saints occupy the central carvings, and Christ on the cross fills the arch above. Reliefs of ecclesiastics appear on the slightly splayed sides, one holding a crozier, or hooked bishop’s staff, and the other a Tau-shaped staff. The monolithic arch has two bands of pellet decoration. The carvings have been interpreted as expressing salvation through Christ and the Church, contrasted with condemnation represented by the man-eating beast below.
The medieval cathedral also had an entrance into the Round Tower. It was later blocked, but its outline remains visible. The Round Tower is one of only two Irish-style round towers in Scotland, the other being at Abernethy. The tower at St Magnus Church on Egilsay is Irish in style but was built integrally with the church rather than as a freestanding structure.
Carved stones
Mary Stone
The Mary Stone, or St Mary’s Stone, is a sandstone fragment from the upper part of the cross face of an upright Class II Pictish cross-slab. Such slabs combine Pictish artistic traditions with a Christian cross and figurative decoration. The fragment was found before 1856 in a garden near the cathedral and had been reused, as shown by the incised date 1782. Its style places it probably in the early eleventh century, and it is preserved inside the cathedral.
The centre shows the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child within a beaded circle. The circle bears the inscription “Holy Mary, Mother of Christ.” An angel is carved on each side, while a bird above probably represents the Holy Spirit as a dove. Below are two haloed figures, probably Saint Peter holding a key and Saint Paul. The four corners contain the four Evangelists, each holding a Gospel. The lower corners show the eagle of John and the lion of Mark. The upper corners preserve headless human bodies that probably originally carried the ox-head of Luke and the angel-head of Matthew. The reverse side was also carved, although it has been cut away.
Aldbar Stone
The Aldbar Stone is a Class II Pictish sandstone cross-slab from Aldbar, three kilometres southwest of Brechin. Its front displays a decorated Celtic cross, birds above the cross, and two ecclesiastics holding books. The foot of the cross forms a decorated square with an opening at its centre.
On the reverse, two human figures sit on a bench, probably representing characters from the Old Testament. Below them are a man fighting a four-legged animal, a harp, and a ram. The harp and ram have led to the interpretation that the fighter represents King David, possibly killing a lion to protect his flock. Beneath this scene is a bearded rider with a short sword and round shield. The lower part shows a horse or donkey, with another animal partly concealed behind it. The stone dates from the ninth or tenth century.
Brechin hogback
The Brechin hogback is a recumbent grave marker with Scandinavian influence, probably dating from the late tenth or early eleventh century. A hogback is a medieval grave monument shaped or decorated with Scandinavian-inspired forms, often with animal figures at its ends. This example is unusually flat, has rounded long sides, and is damaged, with one end missing.
The surviving end carries an end beast, an animal-like figure placed at the end of a hogback, with large eyes and curled tendrils emerging from its snout. Interwoven fantastic animals cover the sides. The other end depicts human figures, probably ecclesiastics, holding a book, a crozier, and possibly a bell. The stone combines Celtic and Scandinavian motifs with the interlaced animals and foliage associated with the Ringerike style, a Viking-age Scandinavian artistic tradition. The Mary Stone and the Brechin hogback are rare and important examples of eleventh-century Scottish stone sculpture preserved within the cathedral.
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