The Layout of the Cathedral

The daily round of services performed by the canons and their vicars took place in the eastern limb of the cathedral, which contained the presbytery — the area given over to the priests serving the high altar - together with the choir of the canons and vicars. At Dunkeld this limb took the shape of an elongated rectangle articulated by the buttresses which strengthened its walls into four bays, each with its own large window; it was, as usual, aligned in an east-west direction, with the altar at the east end.

At a later stage a two-storeyed block was added on the north side of the eastern limb. This block was built for use as a chapter house, the business room of the canons. But it probably also served as a sacristy, in which the clergy prepared for the services and in which the vestments and many of the items used in the services would be stored. An upper room above the chapter house would have served as a treasury, in which the more precious items provided to enhance the services could be stored with safety.

The services for the lay folk took place in a distinct western limb of the building, known as the nave. At Dunkeld the nave was seven bays long, with an aisle running along each side, and it could certainly accommodate large gatherings when required to do so. The entrances for the lay people were through the south and north walls of the nave, the former being the more important of the two, and there was also a processional entrance at the centre of the west front. The nave was later augmented by the addition of a single tower at the west end of the north aisle, and by a porch placed over the south doorway.

The principal altars for the people would have been placed against the screen which separated the nave from the canons’ choir, the slots for which screen are still visible on the two sides of the arch at the junction of the nave and choir. The nave would also have contained a font for baptisms, set near the entrance and thus symbolising man’s entry into the Christian Church, and a pulpit from which sermons could be preached.

Additional numbers of altars were placed in the aisles. or against the arcade piers, many of which were provided as the setting for masses to be said on behalf of the souls of the departed. The belief in the power of prayers offered for the dead, as a means of ensuring salvation, was an important element in the faith of the later middle ages. As a result, all those who could afford it would leave money to pay for such prayers. Some of the more wealthy might even provide sufficient funds to endow a succession of priests to sing masses for them in all perpetuity, and might enclose a part of the cathedral as a separate chapel in which these services could be performed. At the east end of the south aisle of the nave, for example, was the chapel in which Bishop Robert Cardeny (1398—1437) placed his tomb, and as with the choir screen, traces of the slots in which the screens around this chapel were placed can still be seen in the surrounding piers.

Return To Dunkeld Cathedral