With its equable climate, fertile
soil and strategic position, Moray has played an important part
in the story of Scotland from the earliest times. Its principal
town, Elgin, was founded on a well-drained ridge with a natural
defensive mound and protected on three sides by the River Lossie
which was also a source of power and a means of communication. There
was probably a castle here as early as the eleventh century and
the land hereabouts was a favourite hunting ground of the early
monarchs. David I raised Elgin to the status of a Royal Burgh and
in 1224 the town received the additional accolade of being chosen
as the seat of the Bishop Of Moray.
Despite the unwelcome attentions
of various armies and bands of brigands, Elgin grew steadily throughout
the medieval period until by the seventeenth century it boasted
many fine buildings reflecting the prosperity of its merchants and
craftsmen. At the begining of the nineteenth century though, the
town had a population of less than 4,000 and was still largely confined
to three parallel lines of streets running between the Castle and
the precincts of the Cathedral. Then fortunes made abroad financed
some of Elgin's finest buildings and stimulated a sense of civic
pride, which, aided by the coming of the railway and the general
economic growth of Victorian Britain saw the laying out of new streets
and the construction of new buildings on a scale previously unparalleled.
The most recent development has been into the previously seperate
villages of Bishopmill and New Elgin and latterly into marshy area
south of the railway line so that the town now has a population
of some 20,000.
The Bishopric of Moray was founded
in 1107, but it was not until 1224 that the Cathedral was transferred
to 'the Church of the Holy Trinity beside Elgin'. In its original
form Elgin Cathedral was a simple cruciform building, but after
it was damaged by fire in 1270 the choir was doubled in length with
aisles added on each side and a Chapter House built opening off
the north aisle. In 1390 Alexander Stewart, more familiarly known
as the "Wolf of Badenoch', plundered and burned both Forres
and Elgin including the Cathedral, which sustained such damage that
it was necessary to rebuild the western gable, the arcades of the
nave, the central tower and the Chapter House.
Although in the years immediately
following the Reformation the Cathedral seems to have remained untouched,
it was much too rich a target to resist for long. In 1567 the lead
was stripped from the roofs and in 1637 the choir roof collapsed.
The rood-screen with its painting of the crucifixion was taken down
and destroyed in 1640 and on Easter Sunday, 1711, the great central
tower fell destroying the north transept and the main arcades of
thre nave.
Thereafter the ruins were used as
a quarry and rubbish dump until in 1807 an enclosure wall was built
and the process of decline arrested. About 1824 John Shanks was
appointed keeper and set about clearing the rubbish which had accumulated
over the years, removing, it is said, some "3,000 barrowfuls
and laying bare the foundations of the pillars of the nave, the
elevations of the altar and the stairs at the western gate".
From this time onward the conservation
of the building became the great concern of successive government
departments so that the ruins seen today remain one of the finest
examples of medieval architecture in Scotland.
Edward I, the "Hammer of the Scots"
visited Elgin in 1296 and described it as "a good town".
The layout of the medieval town can still be seen
from the top of Ladyhill which is now dominated by the column erected
to the 5th Duke of Gordon in 1839.
Elgin's importance as a commercial town, in an
area which was "fertile, well watered and with genial climate";
remained and by the early eighteenth century it was a prosperous
burgh with many fine buildings. Daniel Defoe described Elgin as
"a very agreeable place to live in", a quality which has
remained.
Several restored eighteenth century buildings
are to be found in the High Street as are the Little Cross of 1733
and the Muckle Cross near the centre of the now pedestrianised High
Street.
Between 1820 and 1840 Elgin was transformed, with
many fine new buildings identifying it as a city well worth visiting.
Dr Grays Hospital, Anderson's Institute, the neo classical St Giles
Church built between 1825 and 1828, and the Elgin Museum of 1842
reflect Elgin's status. At the same time the old restrictive gateways
or ports to the town were removed with only the Pans Port near Elgin
Cathedral now remaining.
It was the coming of the railway in the mid 19th
century that had a significant effect on Elgin. The size of the
burgh doubled and effective communication links were opened up,
thereby further strengthening its commercial and administrative
importance.
Elgin today is a city steeped in history, ruined
castle on a hill, classical town centre, award winning museum, restored
18th century town houses and wynds, beautiful cathedral with the
nearby Bishops House, and the Cooper Park gifted to the town by
George Cooper in 1903. Here is Elgin's superb new library, opened
in 1996, beside the Cooper Park pond in the old TA Drill Hall, Grant
Lodge built as the town house of the Seafield family in 1751 and
now housing the Grant Lodge Local Heritage Centre with its archival
and local collections on Moray, and at its east end Elgin Cathedral,
a must for all visitors. And beyond the Cathedral, Johnstons of
Elgin Visitor Centre.
