Notes: (5) A Niche-Head at Sheriffhall, Midlothian

Abstract

All that remains of the Jacobean mansion of the Giffords of Sheriffhall is the stair-wing, now put to use as a dovecot. Among the stones in secondary use at a nearby farm as rubble were two pieces of fifteenth-century ecclesiastical work. One, which has since disappeared, was a section of a moulded cornice enriched with floral paterae; the other was the canopy of a niche; both had obviously been removed from a church of some importance. The arms depicted are those of an unidentified abbot who may have belonged to Newbattle.