At a distance of about 30 feet north from the convent church stands another building, said to have been the parish church. (See Fig. 381.) It is dedicated to St. Ronan, and is a simple oblong chamber, 37 feet long by 16 feet wide internally. It has a small window in the centre of the east wall, and the seat of the altar still remains. In the north and south wall, near the east end, are the remains of two windows, which have apparently been rather wider than the east window. The doorway has been at the north-west angle, and has had a single nook shaft in each jamb; but that part of the structure is now much destroyed. The whole building is constructed with the plain rubble work usual in West Highland churches. Numerous very fine specimens of Celtic carved work are preserved in the monumental stones which have been found and are preserved in the convent.[192] Amongst these is the monument of the last prioress. On it are carved the figure of the prioress, surmounted by a rude Gothic canopy, and an inscription bearing the date of 1543. It also contains the ancient symbols of the mirror and the comb. ST. NICHOLAS’ CHURCH, ABERDEEN. This church, said to be the largest mediæval parish church in Scotland, is still preserved and used as the principal church of Aberdeen; but only two portions of the ancient work remain--viz., the transepts and the crypt at the east end, below the choir. The nave was rebuilt about the middle of last century by Gibbs, the well-known architect of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields Church, London, and the Radcliffe Library, Oxford. It is, of course, in the Renaissance style of the time, and the interior is very dignified. The choir was entirely taken down in 1835 and rebuilt in the most tasteless fashion. The walls of the crypt and transepts were all refaced except the north front of the transept, which, however, is of no great architectural value, having been altered considerably in the seventeenth century; in any case, it forms a pleasing contrast to the very rigid and inartistic new masonry. The central tower, with the leaded spire, was burned in 1874, and the existing central spire was thereafter erected. In these circumstances, it is only the interior of the transept and crypt which come within the scope of the present work. The transepts (Fig. 385) measure internally about 103 feet by 20 feet 10 inches, and are of the transitional style of the end of the twelfth century. The openings into the nave and choir are now built up. There [Illustration: FIG. 385.--St. Nicholas’ Church, Aberdeen. Plan.]