Castle Semple Collegiate Church - geograph

Castle Semple Collegiate Church is located in

Renfrewshire Renfrewshire () (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. Renfrewshire is located in the west central Lowlands. It borders East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire, and lies on the southern ba ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It is situated near the eastern end of

Castle Semple Loch Castle Semple Loch is a inland freshwater loch at Lochwinnoch in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Originally part of an Estate (land), estate of the same name, it is now administered by Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park as a List of water sports, watersport ...

, within

Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park Clyde Muirshiel Regional parks of Scotland, Regional Park is the collective name for areas of countryside set aside for conservation and recreation on the South River Clyde, Clyde estuary in Scotland. The park covers an area of of Inverclyde, N ...

, and west of

Howwood Howwood (, )
is a village in

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) () is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the merger of government agency Historic Sc ...

as a

Scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

History

John Sempill, 1st Lord Sempill founded the

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons, a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, headed by a dignitary bearing ...

near

Castle Semple Castle Semple (previously Castletoun) is a former mansion house located in Renfrewshire, Scotland. It is situated near the eastern end of Castle Semple Loch, within Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park. History Erected, or more probably rebuilt, by ...

, in circa 1504. It had a

provost Provost may refer to: Officials Ecclesiastic * Provost (religion), a high-ranking church official * Prince-provost, a high-ranking church official Government * Provost (civil), an officer of local government, including the equivalent ...

, six chaplains or

prebendaries A prebendary is a member of the Catholic or Anglican clergy, a form of canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in particular seats, usually at the back of the choir s ...

, two boys, and a

sacristan A sacristan is an officer charged with care of the sacristy, the church, and their contents. In ancient times, many duties of the sacrist were performed by the doorkeepers ( ostiarii), and later by the treasurers and mansionarii. The Decretal ...

James IV of Scotland James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was List of Scottish monarchs, King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James I ...

visited John's house at Eliotston and the collegiate church on 26 July 1505. The king gave an offering of 14 shillings in the "New College."''Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland'', vol.3 (1901), p.xviii, 62 A stone in the outer wall bears the letters R. L. S., and the arms of Sempill and Montgomerie. The church is in length; in width; and in height. Its walls are covered with ivy. The roof was removed in the 1800s, and the ivy has penetrated into the interior. In ancient times, there appears to have been a village at this place, and a chapel in its neighbourhood dedicated to St. Bride.

Design and architecture

The building is a simple oblong, terminating toward the east in a three-sided

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

, and having a square tower projecting from the centre of the west wall. The forms of the double windows indicate that they are very late survivals of Gothic architecture. The other windows in the side walls are altered, but they do not present any features like those of the apse. Over the door to the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

are two coats of arms with the letters R. L. S. and A. M. S., one shield bearing the Sempill arms and the other those of Montgomerie. The square tower at the west end is extremely simple. The tower and most of the side walls are of about the date of the original foundation, while the east apse has been added in the 16th century, to receive the monument of John, Lord Sempill, who died at the

Battle of Flodden The Battle of Flodden, Flodden Field, or occasionally Branxton or Brainston Moor was fought on 9 September 1513 during the War of the League of Cambrai between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland and resulted in an English victory ...

in 1513. A few remains of the original squareheaded windows in the side walls are still traceable. The interior was divided by two solid walls into three compartments, so as to form separate private burial places. In the eastern compartment, there is a large monument to Lord Sempill. A monumental slab in the central compartment is erected in memory of Gabriel Sempel, who died in 1587.

References

* ''This article includes text incorporated from A. Fullarton's "The Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland: with a complete county-atlas from recent surveys, exhibiting all the lines of road, rail, and canal communication; and an appendix, containing the results of the census of 1851" (1853), a publication now in the public domain.'' * ''This article includes text incorporated from D. MacGibbon's " The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland from the earliest Christian times to the seventeenth century" (1897), a publication now in the public domain.''

External links

Page at RCAHMS
*Historic Environment Scotland
Castle Semple Collegiate ChurchCastle Semple Collegiate Church, Village & St Bride's Chapel
{{Portal, Scotland Churches completed in 1504 Churches in Renfrewshire Scheduled monuments in Renfrewshire Historic Environment Scotland properties in Renfrewshire Collegiate churches in Scotland