Dunglass Collegiate Church

Inchcolm Abbey & Forth Belle boat tour.

The first church was built in the mid-1100's. Of the original building, only the nave remains. Built of fine ashlar - blocks of squared stone - it probably bore some resemblance to St. Fillans Church, just across the water.
The second church was built after the devastating wars of Independence, possibly on the orders of Abbot Walter Bower. The whole building was covered by pointed stone barrel vaults similar to those which still survive at Dunglass Collegiate Church, near Cockburnspath in the Borders.
Inchcolm has the best-preserved cloister in Scotland, although most of what survives dates from the later medieval period and represents a far-from-typical arrangement. Its earliest surviving building is the chapter house, which dates from the 1200's, demonstrating that an earlier phase of buildings existed here.
Most of the cloister buildings were built in the 1400's, around the same time as the second church. However, variations in the masonry suggest that the walls incorporate earlier work. To make use of the existing structure, the later cloister buildings were built adjacent to the old church rather than the new one. A curiosity of the chapter house is that the handsome entrance doorway faces into the room, rather than outwards as might normally be expected and that its base is partly covered over. It is possible that the doorway slightly pre-dates the chapter house and was originally associated with some other structure.
The brethren who settled on Inchcolm were Augustinians, so-called because they were following the teachings of St. Augustine of Hippo, a theologian and philosopher who lived AD 354-430 in Numidia (now Algeria).
The life of the canons on Inchcolm was organised around a schedule of Masses, held at set times throughout the day and night. A mass dial, found at Incholm, is one of very few to have survived in Scotland. It would have been used as a sundial to chart the time dictating when the bells in the tower were to be tolled, calling the canons to worship.
An Edinburgh based sight seeing co., Forth Boat Tours takes patrons along Scotland's central waterway, the Firth of Forth on board the 98ft cruiser, Forth Belle. A meandering river that rises at Loch Ard and meets the sea just east of Edinburgh, the Firth of Forth is flanked by breath-taking scenery and is rich in offshore wildlife including seabirds, porpoises and seals.
A site of historical interest, the Forth has seen the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and invasions from England. Saint Margaret used the crossing from South Queensferry to North Queensferry to go from her chapel in Edinburgh Castle to the then capital-Dunfermline (Hence the name Queensferry).