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It is a good question: why, in supposedly dour seventeenth-century Presbyterian Scotland, did a lord chancellor have a private Catholic chapel, and how did he get the co u n try 's top architect to design his altar? Surely, dour-m ongers all, if w e are to believe the rhetoric?The answer derives from the very specific circum stances of the reign of James V II/II, who was king from i 6 8 j until he was forfeited in 1689. So w hat w ere these circumstances?The C o n tex t: R eform ation, C o u n t e r -R eformation and the Political Scene In 1 y6o the Scottish Parliam ent rejected the authority of the church o f Rom e, abolished Catholicism and crim inalised the Mass. Q ueen M ary attem pted to have Catholicism and Protestantism coexist, b u t lost h er argum ent and, in 15-67, h er crow n. H er son James VI Architectural Heritage XXV (2014): 107-13 1 advocated Episcopacy, increasingly so after 1603 w hen the m onarchy em igrated to England on his inheriting the crowns of England and Ireland from Q ueen Elizabeth; and after him , the tw o kings Charles I and Charles II pushed Episcopacy to the point of civil disobedience and war, fanning rather than quelling the flames o f radical Presbyterianism and giving rise to the Covenanter m ovem ent -those adhering to th eir in terp retatio n of G o d 's Covenant -a wing of w hich becam e m ilitarised in opposition to the crow n. It was therefore unequivocally against the flow w hen in 1683 a new king was m ade who was a C atholic.2 This was James VII (II of England and Ireland), b ro th er and successor to Charles II w ho had died early that year. This article highlights and explores a context for one illustration of this royal-led attem pt at religious toleration o r reo rientation -a contract of 1688 concerning a Catholic chapel for Jam es's Scottish chancellor, James D rum m ond, 4l1' Earl o f Perth. James, w hen D uke of Albany and York, was exiled to mainland Europe w ith his b ro th er King Charles II during the 1640s to 1640s p eriod of civil w ars and w ars of the three kingdoms. Ele served in Louis XIV's w ars, becom ing thereafter dom iciled in England following the R estoration of royal authority in 1660. Secretly, he converted to Catholicism, b u t as his having done so becam e m ore generally know n the Exclusion Crisis eru p ted -a move to exclude James as heir to the throne of England. A decision was taken to despatch him to Scotland, w here he arrived in 1679. From then until 1682 he held an in term itten t 'satellite' royal co u rt at newly rebuilt Elolyroodhouse, and b oth he and his young Duchess, M ary of M odena, w ere very well received, making friends th e re .5 His presence, energetic enthusiasm -evident fondness for Scotland -and encouragem ent of im provem ent led to an extraordinary degree of advance and progress.4 O n the other hand, Jam es's very presence in Scotland stoked strong religious disapproval from an opposition already frustrated by w hat it regarded as three generations of inflexible and misguided royal religious policies o r repress...

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Because it has lost its original roof-form, Durisdeer Church has not been recognized as a major monument in its own right. This paper presents two complementary primary sources, a sketch by John Clerk of Eldin and an 18th-century description showing its original form: the building history is investigated and stylistic and circumstantial evidence is combined to suggest that not only the Queensberry Aisle, but also the main building is by James Smith of Whitehill.

The year 1603 was one of the British Isles’ most critical dates, due to regnal union. Scotland’s King James VI became, in addition, England and Ireland’s new King James I, and sought immediately to convert regnal into full union, building a Magna Britannia: Great Britain. He sought uniformity in all areas political and religious. That project foundered, not least due to English apprehension towards the influx of Scots promoted to major English posts. One such appointee was the King’s master of works in Scotland, David Cunningham of Robertland, whom James appointed Surveyor of the Works in England.Cunningham seems therefore to have been a highly significant person, worthy of close study, but current research limits this. How can an architectural figure who may have built nothing be important to architectural study? Who was this Cunningham of Robertland? Why did James appoint him to the highest architectural position in his gift, not once but twice, and when each time there must have been alternative candidates? Seeking an answer to these questions opens up an exploration of the wider issue of the status and function of the master of works and the Surveyor in this period, as will be seen.