Identifier: baronialecclesia00bill (find matches)
Title: The baronial and ecclesiastical antiquities of Scotland - Vol 1 of 4 (1909 edition)
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Billings, R. W. (Robert William), 1813-1874 Wiston-Glyn, A. W
Subjects: Architecture Church architecture
Publisher: Edinburg T.N. Foulis
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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n the neighbouring steeple.fNor are we without evidence of their having been so used in Ireland. Onewriter says, There was no doubt but the Round Tower at Ardmore wasused for a belfray, there being, towards the top, not only four oppositewindows to let out the sound, but also three pieces of oak still remaining,in which the bell was hung ; there were also two channels cut in the cill ofthe door where the rope came out, the ringer standing below the door onthe outside.! A passage in the Annals of the Four Masters, describing thedestruction of the church of Doun, with its campanilis or belfry,§ isconfidently said to apply to one of these towers, of which the remains wereremoved in 1789.II * See Moores Hist, of Ireland, i. 30. + New Statistical Account. Forfarshire, 133. I Smiths Hist, of Waterford,—Quoted, Ledwich Antiq. of Ireland, 295 § Dunum combustum totum cum sua ecclesia lapidea et cum suo campanile, fulmine.—OConner. Rer. Hib. Scrip, iii. 559. II Reeves Eccles. Ant. 41, 23a
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•Jill: CIUKCII ANl) ROUND TOWICK Al I.KICCI 11N ANTIQUITIES OF SCOTLAND 53 Human bones have been found in the earth, both within and closearound these remnants of ancient architecture,—a circumstance readilyaccounted for by the mere fact of their being ecclesiastical edifices. A rumourhaving, however, arisen, that sepulchral urns, and other indications of ante-Christian sepulture, had been found connected with their foundations, it wasresolved to make some investigations beneath the Tower of Brechin, whichwere not, however, conducted with any such glittering expectations as thosewhich prompted an enthusiast to dig beneath the foundation of its neighbourat Abernethy, with the assurance of finding the golden cradle in which thechildren of the Pictish kings were rocked. Under the auspices of the intelligent historian of Brechin, an excavationtook place, to a considerable depth, within the area of the Tower ; verypraiseworthy precautions being adopted for keeping the building closed i

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