The Bones of St Nicholas Part II

In October I stood on the oldest known floor in Aberdeen, a true ‘hidden’ gem as the above image shows.  It belongs to the Kirk of St Nicholas. How old?  Around a thousand years according to the carbon dating of the graves discovered in the recent dig.  The fish-rich diet of our forebears skews the results of the dating, changing the mineral content of those old bones, but certainly some time during the 11th century.

So why build a stone church in a small, Scottish coastal settlement in 1000AD?

David I's seal

By the 1100s, Aberdeen had the status of a royal burgh, granted by David I.  David also invited Bishop Nechtan of Mortlach to settle here and make it the centre of the new bishopric in 1124.  The fact Nechtan and his successors concentrated their efforts on building a cathedral in Old Aberdeen, then Villa Aberdon, rather than in the centre of the burgh, suggests there was a considerable church here already.   The 1157 ‘bull’ or charter from Pope Adrian IV to succeeding bishop, Edward, refers to churches in both burgh and ‘villa’.

But why was the bishopric not founded there in the first place? What was the significance of Mortlach?  Despite the romantic notion it was founded in 1012 after the Danes were defeated there by Malcolm II, modern historian, Alex Woolf believes that the actual founder was the former’s great-grandson, Malcolm Canmore, in 1065.

Malcolm Canmore

This Malcolm is better known to us as the hero of Shakespeare’s infamous ‘Scottish Play’, when he returns to slay the murderous Macbeth.  However, the English playwright’s grasp of Scottish history was practically zero.  Macbeth had a perfectly legitimate claim to the Scottish throne; whereas Malcolm’s family had spent the last three generations bumping off their enemies to gain the prize.

Mortlach, located near modern-day Dufftown, was in the ancient Pictish state of Moray, Macbeth’s territory.  Malcolm founded the bishopric here out of political necessity rather than religious fervour, so the churchmen could keep order amongst Macbeth’s supporters and allies, natural enemies of the new king.

Perhaps Malcolm felt a little guilty after all and decided to fund the building of a new church as a means of atonement for his bloody deeds.  Aberdeen profited.  Whatever the case, the bishopric of Mortlach was instituted just at the time Alexander Gammie suggested that the kirk of St Nicholas was begun.  Only time … and archaeology will tell!

The Bones of St Nicholas Part I

No, no, not the relics of the Bishop of Myra who became the most famous patron saint of children … no, it is the mortal remains of our Celtic forebears who named their settlement Aber Da Abhainn, ‘At the mouth of two rivers’, the Dee and the Denburn, to which I refer in my title.

These bones were discovered by local archaeologist Alison Cameron back in 2008; the burial of twenty-three skeletons of infants and children were revealed outside the curved wall or apse of the earliest known stone church in Aberdeen.

Received wisdom stated that the ‘Great Church’ dedicated to St Nicholas which appears prominently on Parson Gordon’s 1661 map was founded in the twelfth century. Imagine Alison’s surprise at the ‘extraordinary’ result of the carbon dating on the children’s graves which placed them in the period between 890 and 1020AD!  This was history in the making – confounding centuries of previously accepted knowledge.

The burials apparently could not have predated the church building as they are laid out to follow the curved wall in a fan-shape, and they were undamaged unlike later burials above.  Therefore that Celtic community on the upper slopes of the Denburn Valley was in existence more than a century before chieftain, Gillecoaim, who gave his name to Gilcomston, witnessed the royal charter granted to the monks of Deer in 1152.

Aberdeen Civic Seal from 1150-1424
showing Nicholas with nautical symbols

These Celts, who spoke a tongue closer to Welsh than Gaelic, were fisherfolk who exploited the rich harvests of salmon in the rivers and white fish in the North Sea.  It is no surprise then that they should choose ‘Blessed Nicholas’ in his aspect as patron saint of seafarers as their spiritual protector.

The Christian faith of these fishers would have been rooted in the mission work of early wandering preachers like Saints Machar, Ternan and Molaug who came to NE Scotland in the 5th and 6th centuries.  Aberdeen did not become a bishopric until 1124AD, but was moved from Mortlach in Banffshire, a religious centre from the 1060s.

Oddly enough, the only person to ever suggest an earlier date for the building of St Nicholas’ kirk was historian Alexander Gammie, who gives the date 1060AD in his Churches of Aberdeen, published in 1909.  Those little graves of the ‘Mither Kirk’, hidden for so long, now tell us that he and those medieval chroniclers, dismissed by modern historians, might have been closer to the truth all along.

St Nicholas, Bishop of Myra

The Wandering Wallace Tower

“The name’s Keith, not Wallace!” the indignant Robert Keith might have bellowed had he known his carved likeness had been mistaken for the Guardian of Scotland. It was indeed the brother of George, the 4th Earl Marischal, who commissioned the building of the Z-plan towerhouse in 1588 in the Netherkirkgate.

Jealous of his brother’s new university, Robert Keith, Lord of Benholm, deliberately sited his new home within sight of Marischal College. Such was their sibling rivalry that Sir Robert took a group of miscreants to occupy the Abbey of Deer which also belonged to his brother. This resulted in an armed standoff which thankfully ended without bloodshed. 

By 1595 the two brothers were reconciled without further incident. Robert died in 1616, and ‘Benholm’s Lodging’ as it was known, then passed through a number of owners, including Patrick Dun, principal of Marischal College, and James Pirie, spirit dealer, turned the basement of Benholm’s Lodging into “The Wallace Tower Bar”, while the other floors were let out. The council continued to use it as housing from 1918, as they were desperate to fill the shortage after the Great War, and the pub remained a well-known drinking establishment.

Fast forward to 1964 and retail giant Marks & Spencers, having bought over ‘Raggie Morrisons’ drapery store next door, wanted to expand, right onto the site where the tower currently stood. It looked like the Wallace Tower would be destroyed for the sake of ‘development’! Enter Dr Simpson, historian, who headed the campaign to protect the B-listed property; thankfully he prevailed, and ‘Markies’ offered to foot the bill to move it brick by brick to its new home in Seaton Park.

Sketch of Netherkirkgate with the Wellhead by Benholm's Lodging

The Wallace Tower now sits empty and forlorn on the edge of Tillydrone, having lost all historic context. But why Wallace? Benholm was soon forgotten, and the effigy of a knight was thought to be William Wallace, mainly because the old site developed the nickname ‘Waal Hoose Close’, after a public well which stood on Carnegie’s Brae nearby. 

Confusion reigned as the Doric tongue was dismissed as uncouth, and some proper Victorian thought it must mean Wallace, and thus refer to the Scots hero. The tower has not only lost its name, but its true identity as a nobleman’s townhouse – perhaps it is time to bring it back to life rather than allowing it to disintegrate and disappear forever?

The Bishop, the King and the Architect

It is difficult to believe that the highly-decorated archway on Old Aberdeen’s High Street and the New Kings classroom block are not medieval structures like their neighbour Kings College, but they were only designed in 1911 by local architect, Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, a native of Elgin.  This master of the Gothic style had already created the ‘wedding cake’ frontage to Marischal College in 1906, so this job was a doddle!

James Stuart, IV of Scotland

The coats of arms which adorn the arch tell the story of the university in miniature. We begin at the top, with the red lion rampant and the royal crown of Scotland representing King James IV.

He was a great friend of Bishop Elphinstone, the weel-kent founder of Kings College.  The second shield features the bishop’s mitre, the intitals ‘W E’ and Elphinstone’s own coat of arms.  Such was the esteem in which the bishop held his monarch, he named it Kings College in his honour, rather than St. Mary’s College, despite being dedicated to the Virgin.  James had supported the bishop’s desire to found a university college in Aberdeen when Elphinstone petitioned Pope Alexander VI.  The date of 1494 is that of the ‘bull’ or letter from His Holiness confirming this request (bulla being the Latin word for the seals which appended such communications).

Alexander Marshall MacKenzie

The date of 1912 is when New Kings was completed, suggesting Marshall Mackenzie had the archway built as a celebration of his new work. 

William Elphinstone

The motto Non Confundar  appears to be Elphinstone’s; its origins lie in a hymn attributed to early Christian missionary, St. Ambrose, Te Deum; the full phrase reads non confundar in eternum – never let me be confounded.  When we realise Bishop William was an illegitimate child, perhaps this was an indication he was determined not to allow this unfortunate beginning affect his political and religious future.

Below is the current coat of arms of the University including the quartered arms of Kings College; George Keith, founder of Marischal College; Bishop Elphinstone and Aberdeen City.  This is encompassed by Elphinstone’s Latin motto for the original “St. Mary’s College” — as we might have known it today had the bishop not dedicated it to his king — which translates as The Beginning of Wisdom is Fear of the Lord, a phrase found twice in the Bible, in Proverbs and Psalms.  The wisdom of a king, a bishop and an architect created a lasting architectural legacy which we should continue to treasure for future generations.