Editing Arbroath Abbey (section)

==Architectural description==
[[Image:Arbroath Abbey2.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Arbroath Abbey, showing The Round 'O']]
The Abbey was built over some sixty years using local red sandstone, but gives the impression of a single coherent, mainly '[[Early English Period|Early English]]' architectural design, though the round-arched processional doorway in the western front looks back to late [[Normans|Norman]] or transitional work.  The [[triforium]] (open arcade) above the door is unique in Scottish medieval architecture.  It is flanked by twin towers decorated with blind arcading.  The [[cruciform]] church measured {{convert|276|ft|m}} long by {{convert|160|ft|m}} wide.<ref name="EB1911"/>  What remains of it today are the [[sacristy]], added by Abbot Paniter in the 15th century, the southern [[transept]], which features Scotland's largest [[lancet window]]s, part of the [[choir]] and [[presbytery (architecture)|presbytery]], the southern half of the [[nave]], parts of the western towers and the western doorway.
The church originally had a central tower and (probably) a spire.  These would once have been visible from many miles over the surrounding countryside, and no doubt once acted as a sea mark for ships.  The soft sandstone of the walls was originally protected by plaster internally and render externally.  These coatings are long gone and much of the architectural detail is sadly eroded, though detached fragments found in the ruins during consolidation give an impression of the original refined, rather austere, architectural effect.

The distinctive round window high in the south transept was originally lit up at night as a [[beacon]] for mariners.  It is known locally as the 'Round O', and from this tradition inhabitants of [[Arbroath]] are colloquially known as 'Reid Lichties' (Scots reid = red).

Little remains of the claustral buildings of the Abbey except for the impressive gatehouse, which stretches between the south-west corner of the church and a defensive tower on the High Street, and the still complete Abbot's House, a building of the 13th, 15th and 16th centuries, which is the best preserved of its type in [[Scotland]].
[[File:ArbroathAbbeyNave.jpg|thumb|left|The [[nave]] of Arbroath Abbey, as observed from the west]]
In the summer of 2001, a new visitors' centre was opened to the public beside the Abbey's west front.  This red sandstone-clad building, with its distinctive 'wave-shaped' organic roof, planted with sedum, houses displays on the history of the Abbey and some of the best surviving stonework and other relics.  The upper storey features a scale model of the Abbey complex, a computer-generated 'fly-through' reconstruction of the church as it was when complete, and a viewing gallery with excellent views of the ruins.  The centre won the 2002 Angus Design Award.  An archaeological investigation of the site of the visitors' centre before building started revealed the foundations of the medieval precinct wall, with a gateway, and stonework discarded during manufacture, showing that the area was the site of the masons' yard while the Abbey was being built.