It is from this period that the existing buildings began to be erected, and the construction probably went on for a considerable length of time thereafter. In 1265 Richard, Bishop of Dunkeld, built the new choir at his own expense. He was High Chamberlain in 1255-57, and, at his death in 1272, his heart was laid, according to Father Hay, in the wall of the new choir. Although the island position of the monastery made it usually a safe retreat, it did not protect it from the attacks of the English fleet during the War of Independence. In 1335 it was harried by the English, who carried off the precious chalices and censers, crosses and chandeliers, relics, vestments, and images. The abbey was again attacked in 1336, and in 1384 the fleet of Richard II. plundered it and set it on fire. Some repairs were, doubtless, required thereafter, and we find that in 1402 the chapel of the Blessed Virgin, adjoining the south side of the choir, was founded by the Prior, Richard of Aberdeen, and Thomas Crawford, Canon of Inchcolm. In 1418 Walter Bower, the editor and continuator of the _Scotichronicon_ of Fordun, was appointed abbot, and carried out his literary work in the abbey. As the period of the Reformation approached, the monastery seems to have fallen off, and in 1543 Abbot Henry resigned office, and the abbey was deserted. After the battle of Pinkie, in 1547, the Duke of Somerset occupied Inchcolm as the best post for commanding the Frith of Forth. The lands of West Aberdour were acquired from Abbot Nicholas by James Stewart of Ochiltree, who became Commendator of the Abbey; and his second son, James Stewart, Lord Doune, was, in 1611, created a peer, with the title of Lord St. Colm. He married the daughter of the Regent Murray, and the lands were united to the estate of the Earl of Moray, who thus became proprietor of Inchcolm. The island is about half a mile in length, and lies about one mile and a-half from the harbour of Aberdour, on the north side of the Frith of Forth. It consists of an elevated portion at each end, with a low lying isthmus between them, on which the abbey is built, the buildings extending across the full breadth of the land.