The dependent buildings were also usually numerous and complete, the cathedrals and abbeys being almost all provided with large cloister garths, surrounded by handsome chapter houses, refectories, guest houses, &c. The chapter houses are generally square, and vaulted from one central pillar; but that of Elgin Cathedral is detached and octagonal, with vaulting springing from a lofty central column. The western portals are generally important, those of Elgin Cathedral and Holyrood Abbey being specially fine. That of Kirkwall Cathedral, already described,[10] is the finest of this period. The Norman round apse gives place at this time, as in England, to the square east end, and there is in the first pointed period no indication of a round or multangular chevet like those in France. The similarity of all the details of the architecture of Scotland to that of England has already been fully explained.[11] The Scottish churches are comparatively low in the vaulting; they do not exhibit the soaring ambition of those of France, but are, like the churches of the sister country, comparatively moderate in height. The buttresses are simple and plain, and flying buttresses and pinnacles are occasionally used. The caps are round on plan, and have foliage founded on that of the early first pointed style in England. The windows are almost always of the lancet form, several being often grouped together, and some incipient forms of tracery are attempted, as at Dunblane and Glasgow Cathedrals. In the piers the massive round columns of the Norman style are abandoned, and clustered shafts are used, which give a lighter character to the interior. The sections of these piers are exceedingly simple and effective. They are usually illustrated in connection with each edifice, and they have all a general resemblance to each other. The section consists of one larger attached shaft (usually brought to an acute edge in the centre) on each of the four cardinal faces, and one or two intermediate smaller shafts between the four principal shafts, either separated by square fillets or without such fillets. In the later examples the sharp keel edge on the face of the shafts becomes a fillet. The bays sometimes follow the ordinary arrangement in England, having a triforium arcade over the main arcade, surmounted by the clerestory. In some of our largest churches, viz., St. Andrews and Glasgow Cathedrals, and Kilwinning, Holyrood, Arbroath, and Pluscardine Abbeys, this arrangement is followed; but it is notable that in several churches, as at Elgin and Dunblane Cathedrals, the triforium is dispensed with, and the clerestory is placed immediately over the main arcade. In other examples, as at Dryburgh Abbey, the triforium is reduced to a minimum, and the gallery represented only by a round cusped opening. The absence of the triforium is an arrangement which was much adhered to in the later epochs of our Gothic architecture.