Fortrose Cathedral

The Cathedral of the old Bishopric of Ross was founded about 1126 by King David of Scotland. For over a century the Bishop's seat was at Rosemarkie where the church of St Peter, probably on the site of the present church, served as his Cathedral.  In 1256 the Pope granted the Bishop's petition to increase the number of canons in the diocese and sanctioned the removal to Fortrose.  Building of the Cathedral at Fortrose is thought to have begun soon after.

We can only speculate on the progress of the growth of the Cathedral and on the many alterations made over the centuries.  The Choir, Chancel and Chapter House (i.e. the east end as far as the east end of the south aisle) were probably finished 1280-90, and the walls of the nave may have been partly or entirely built. Then came the Wars of Independence. All over the country building ceased as workmen rallied to the cause, and the style of architecture of the south aisle suggests work did not resume until the second half of the 14th century and was not completed until well into the 15th century.

The Reformation

In the second half of the 16th century the Cathedral began to fall into decline.  Religious troubles led to the disbandment of the canons and Choral vicars. In 1572 the Regent Moray granted to his treasurer, the Lord Ruthven permission to strip the lead from the roof, aisle and chapter house in so far as it still remained. One of the canons had already helped himself.  Once the lead had gone, the roof timbers fell in, storms and wanton damage took their toll and by the end of the 17th century scarce a vestige of it remained.

THE CHAPTER HOUSE

The Chapter House has a low undercroft with groined vaulting of the 13th century and arched and cusped stone seats along the walls, used by the canons when they sat in council.

There had been at one time an altar below the east window.  At the west end, a narrow stairway leads to an upper chamber for storing vestments, sacred vessels and other precious things. The upper storey is now reached by an outside stair.  Above the entrance is a tablet commemorating the work of an 18th century restorer of the Chapter House, Sir Hector Munro of Novar, who in 1788/89 made it fit for a place of worship.  When the parish church of Rosemarkie was rebuilt in 1823 the congregation moved there.

The upper room later became the Council Chamber and Magistrate's Court and finally a meeting place for the Freemasons until the floor was found to be unsafe.

THE SOUTH AISLE

The east window is a richly carved and traceried window of the middle pointed (Gothic) architecture of the late 14th century which (in Scotland) carried on into the 15th century.  It had five lights as is witnessed by the four bases of the mullions dividing the window which is very wide in relation to its height.  It is carved in a series of arch mouldings protected on the outside by a slender weather hood which ends on both sides with a carved head.  At both comers of the east wall are slim buttresses.  The north one has an added projection of finely worked columns which are the base of the mouldings of a window of the chancel.  Above the main window are two smaller pointed windows.

The south wall is the greatest glory of the ruins.  The pinkish-red sandstone glows in the sunlight and a series of pointed traceried windows delights the eye.  An octagonal bell tower separates the two sections of the aisle.

In 1449 Bishop Thomas Tulloch presented a bell dedicated to St Mary and St Boniface and it is this bell, recast, that still strikes the hour.

The western section is narrower and plainer than the east and has some puzzling features.  A much rougher masonry suggests earlier work as does the small round-headed window above the main doorway. To the left of the door is a slender lancet window: to the right one traceried window remains but the next one seems to have been originally rounck, then converted to pointed and finally filled in to protect the vast Mackenzie monument surrounding the curious vaulted chamber built out below the windows.  For whom this vault was constructed there are no means of telling, but it predates the Mackenzie connection.

This section lacks the decorated corbel-course and was drained by projecting lead spouts of which only one remains (at the west comer).

Outside the main door - a massive oaken structure as seen from the inside but a rather shabby green painted door on the outside, are the remains of a porch the usual marriage porch of the south side of a church which must have been an imposing two storey building.  A track led up from the shore to it via what is now the garden of the house on the opposite side of Academy Street.  The west wall again has a corbel-course for drainage and a pleasing, though small, traceried window of two lancets and a square-headed window for the upper storey.

The north wall has four imposing arches.  There is sufficient difference in the style of workmanship to suggest that it is later than that of the inside arches.  In other words, the aisle was built as a unit and then the windows of the original south wall were reconstructed to become the arches leading into the nave - a practice not uncommon in church building.

Nowadays the aisle is entered through one of the arches into the east section which was perhaps always conceived as a chantry chapel for the Earls of Ross.  In 1379/80 the Countess and her husband had endowed such a chantry in 'the chapel of St Boniface adjacent to the town of Rosemarkie which is called Cuthyl Curitan' the priests to be appointed by the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Church of Ross to say mass for the salvation of their souls and those of their ancestors the Earls of Ross, their heirs and successors.  There is a local tradition that the 'chapel field' near Kincurdie House (on the outskirts of Rosemarkie) was the site of an ancient chapel, but nothing now remains.

Below the east window had once stood an altar as is witnessed by the piscina on the right and an ambry (cupboard) on the left.  The piscina, complete with drain hole and credence shelf, has survived in all its glory through the centuries.  The piscina is used by the celebrant to rinse the communion vessels immediately so that the Devil can have no chance to snatch even the tiniest scrap of the sacramental wafer nor a sip of the consecrated wine - such at least was the medieval superstition.

A plain sandstone font stands in the place of the altar.  Nothing is known of its history, but it is probably of late medieval date.

On the north wall three canopied table-tombs are inserted in the arches.  Local tradition assigns the eastern-most one to Euphemia, Countess of Ross, to whose bounty the aisle probably owes a great deal.  As seen from the outside it has a finely wrought canopy surmounted by a floriated cross.

Next to it an elaborate structure with arcading on the outside panel and symbolic mitres at head and feet, is thought to be the tomb of Bishop Cairncross (1539-45).

The third with a handsome traceried canopy and an arcaded panel on the inside is in the west section and is generally ascribed to Bishop Fraser (1498-1507).  None of these ascriptions has been authoritatively established but for each there is circumstantial evidence.  The Wardlaw Ms (c. 1661) tells us that Bishop Fraser's tomb was in a niche on the north wall near the great door.  In 1797, workmen in the Cathedral broke open a tomb which they found to be decorated inside with a series of red crosses on the white plaster, which suggest a punning reference to the name 'Cairncross' while the presence of a crozier indicates a bishop.  Fragments of his robes and of his crozier are in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries in Edinburgh: other fragments are in possession locally.

The glory of both sections of the aisle is the ribbed vaulting of the roof, more sophisticated and more delicate than the simple groined vaulting of the undercroft.  The work can be dated only approximately.  All that can be said categorically is that it was still in progress in 1420 and may even have been continuing after 1439.  This is established by the boss on the fourth bay from the east end.  It bears the arms of a bishop of that period, a buil's head cabossed (full face), the arms of Bishop Bulloch (1420-39).  Since the boss is an integral part of the vaulting cut and carved on the ground and not an omament to be stuck on at will, that section of the roof must be later than 1420.

The work of vaulting the roof most likely began in the eastern section.  Three bosses adorn the first bay - they appear to be many-petalled flowers rather than shields but the boss of the first bay beyond the segmental arch bears the arms of the Countess' first husband, Sir Walter Leslie, whom she married in 1366 (three buckles on a bend).  Thus the work dates after that.  He died in 1382: a few months later his widow was forced into marriage with the Earl of Buchan, the notorious Wolf of Badenoch, who died in 1394.  It is not surprising that he is not commemorated here but he has an ornate monument in Dunkeld. 

The west section is filled with Mackenzie and Seafortth memorials.  Those on the floor are now mostly illegible but the mural tablets tell their own tale.  One however is sheer fantasy, and throws an extraordinary light on the character of Sit Kenneth Mackenzie as Death holding onto his castle of Redcastle.

There are some interesting slab gravestones in the kirkyard and to the south of the main door there stands a 'louping on' stone for use by those who came to church on horseback.

Bishop Fraser's tomb has a lion with thick mane and tail curled over his back and the lioness on the other side of the canopy.  Both are now headless but their claws are as vicious as when they were first carved, from what model, one wonders.

 At the east section four heads can be seen on the mouldings of the south window one of which is a particularly good head of a woman and two on the east window.

The masons were also busy on the outside.  There are five heads on the north wall (and two dog-tooth ornaments) with two more on the tomb of the Countess: two other terminals of the east window, one on the first window of the south wall and one on the west window. In all there are nineteen crowned or mitred heads.  There had been others but they are now too weathered to be recognisable.