562 The Pillar Towers of the British Islands, [No. 5 



space to the fchaste specimen of the Saxon chancel arch attached to it. 

 This Tower is 55 feet in height, and 7 feet in diameter, and is built 

 with lime. The conical cap is built in the herring-bone style. The 

 door is on a level with the ground, and there are only two small 

 windows near the top, looking to the north and south. 



Another Pillar Tower of this class is that of Brechin* in Scotland, and 

 is distinguished for the beauty of the workmanship, and the elegance 

 of its form. It is supposed to have been built in the ninth century; 

 or a century or more earlier than the old church of Brechin, which is 

 supposed to have been founded by Kenneth IV. A. D. 990. f The present 

 church, to which the tower is attached, was added long afterwards. 



The Tower of Brechin is built on a gentle elevation, to the north 

 of the old Castle of Brechin, and of the river Esk. It has a contrac- 

 ted view of a fruitful valley on the west ; while on the east there is 

 a rich and wide plain, terminating with the Bay of Montrose and the 

 German Ocean. 



The stones of which this tower is built have been carefully selected, 

 and formed into square shapes, so modified as to give the circular form 

 to the building ; and they are so placed and fitted to each other, for 20 

 feet from below upwards, and in patches particularly on the east side, 

 as to give a spiral rising to the tiers or courses, thus throwing the 

 pressure of the superincumbent mass upon an inclined plane. I am 

 not aware that this remarkable circumstance has ever been observed 

 before ; nor does it occur in any of the Irish Round Towers existing. 

 Very little cement had been employed in the building ;, but the nature 

 of this cement cannot readily be ascertained, as the tower has been 

 thoroughly repaired, and a modern octagon roof erected over it, with 

 angular-headed windows at each of the abutments and spaces, to give 

 it the same architectural character as the modern church, which it 

 joins, and of which it forms the south-west corner. The old tower, 

 previous to the repairs, was eighty-five feet in height : it is now 

 increased by eighteen feet, the height of the new roof. Its extreme 

 circumference at the top is 38 feet 6 inches, sloping outwards to the 

 bottom, where it is 50 feet ; the interior diameter at the top is 7 feet 

 8 inches, at the bottom, 8 feet ; the thickness of the wall at the four 



* From the Gaelic name Breaichnain, a " brae/' or sloping bank, 

 f Hie est qui tribuit magnam civitatem Brechne domino. Chr, Pict. Kenneth 

 died by treachery (per dolum) A. D. 994. Ulster Annals. 



