ARCHITECTURE IN ABERDEEN: A SURVEY 59 
as a fifteenth century Scottish equivalent in granite of an English 
Perpendicular end-window. 
At some date before 1437 the Lady Elizabeth Gordon, ‘ heir of Huntly 
and Strathbogie,’ built in connection with St. Nicholas’ a new chapel, 
where she was buried in 1438. ‘This chapel, ‘ our Lady’s pity vault,’ 
placed east of the old Norman choir on ground that sloped rapidly down, 
was planned as the first instalment of a new choir; so that when the 
extended new choir was built some forty or fifty years later, the chapel 
became an undercroft. Built entirely of granite, it consists of a nave-bay 
with north and south aisles, and an apsidal sanctuary-bay, all vaulted 
with ribbed cross-vaulting. The low bowed lines of the arches of St. 
Mary’s—low of necessity, because of the choir above—are singularly 
effective ; especially noticeable is the treatment of the diagonal rib-arches 
which spring from corbels set lower than the capitals of the piers from 
which the main arches rise. 
From its style, the work must be attributed to a man having a better 
knowledge of normal Gothic forms than the mason of St. Machar’s 
possessed. 
With the completion of these two works the medieval use of granite 
masonry came to an end. 
Late Gotuic.—When, in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, 
the choir of St. Nicholas’ was rebuilt, the work was done in sandstone by 
‘masons of the lodge —latterly under Maistre Johne Gray. Apparently, 
to allow of the material for the choir being conveniently raised, the 
granite vaulting of St. Mary’s, or part of it, was taken down ; but when 
the work was reinstated, it was carried out in freestone. ‘The corbels and 
the diagonal ribs of the nave-bay, the ridge ribs, the bosses and keystones 
are of sandstone. ‘The corbels, bosses and keystones are carved, as are 
the wall-rib stops—one in the form of a small nude figure. 
The choir of St. Nicholas’ was pulled down in 1835, when the present 
(granite) East Church was built. 
King’s College Chapel, Old Aberdeen, begun on April 2, 1500, was by 
the end of 1506 so far advanced that the oak roof was ready for its lead 
covering. ‘The most arresting feature of the chapel is the crown-steeple, 
one of two ancient examples left in Scotland; the other soars over 
St. Giles’ and the old town of Edinburgh. 
The eight-armed crown of St. Giles’ is a little older than the four- 
armed crown of King’s. St. Giles’ tower is 29 ft. square, whereas King’s 
measures 28 ft. 3 in. by 24 ft. ro in., the larger dimension being on the 
west and east sides. The very great thickness of its south wall shows that 
the tower was begun as a square of nearly 25 ft. ; afterwards the plan was 
made oblong, presumably in order that the crown steeple should appear 
from the west about as large as St. Giles’. Viewed from the north or the 
south, or nearly so, the steeple is much finer than it is as seen from the 
east or the west. ‘The similarity of the details of the two crowns makes it 
almost certain that the master-mason of the chapel was from the Lothians, 
and that he knew and possibly had worked at St. Giles’ steeple. But the 
original character of the Aberdeen steeple in large measure was lost 
when the upper part was rebuilt by a local mason after the crown had been 
