10 IONA. ANTIQUITIES. 



monastery, and the peculiar remoteness of its situation. 

 The tombs within, of which one is placed under a canopy of 

 three pointed arches, offer no objection to such a distant 

 origin, as these are all evidently posterior to the building 

 itself. 



The Chapel of the Nunnery is, perhaps, the next in 

 order of antiquity, the arches being also round, but without 

 ornaments : and as the whole style of the building partakes 

 of the general plan of the Norman churches before orna- 

 ments came into use, and previous to any appearance of 

 the pointed arch or of the other peculiarities which were 

 introduced at a later date, I should be inclined, from 

 internal evidence, to place it beyond the twelfth century. 



The structure of St. Mary's Church, which was at the 

 same time the Abbey Church and the Cathedral of the 

 Diocese of the Isles, bespeaks a later origin, and can- 

 not be referred to a date more distant than the early part of 

 the thirteenth century, if it be even of an antiquity so 

 high*. It is in the form of a cross, with a square tower at 

 the intersection, but of small dimensions and executed 

 in a manner which bespeaks both the limited means 

 of the founders, and the inexpertness of the artists; 

 circumstances in general sufficiently visible in a great 

 number of the ecclesiastical remains of Scotland. The 

 length from east to west is about one hundred and 

 twenty feet, and that of the transept about seventy. The 

 tower is about seventy feet in height. This is lighted 

 on two sides ; on one by a window, consisting of a plain 

 slab, perforated with quatrefbils; on the other, by a 

 circular light, with spirally-curved mullions, one of the 

 varieties of the Catherine wheel window. The shafts of 



* It must be observed, however, that this church bears marks of two 

 distinct periods, the earlier part being to the eastward of the tower. 

 It is probable that this end corresponds more nearly in date with the 

 Nunnery chapel than the western one, to which the following remarks 

 are chiefly applicable. Those mixtures of style 'which have arisen from 

 addition and reparation, are a frequent source of difficulty to antiquaries. 



