King's College, Aberdeen

In 1495, William Elphinstone, the relatively newly appointed Bishop of Aberdeen, petitioned Pope Alexander VI on behalf of King James IV to create the facility to cure the ignorance he had witnessed within his parish and in the north generally.

[1] Following the Reformation, King's College was purged of its Roman Catholic staff but remained largely resistant to change in its methods.

George Keith, the fifth Earl Marischal, however was a moderniser within the college and supportive of the reforming ideas of Peter Ramus.

In common with Marischal, King's College supported the Jacobite cause and following the defeat of the 1715 rising both were largely purged of their academics and officials.

King's College chapel retains more medieval woodwork than any other Scottish church, including the choir stalls and screen.

The Cromwell Tower was a building built during the 1650s-60s during the period of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, although finished after Charles II had been reinstalled as King.

[3][4] The 1930 construction of the Elphinstone Hall effectively created a two-quadrangle arrangement, connected to the original King's buildings.

The Hall's front faces outwards, with its lawn effectively creating a central open space now bordered on the other sides by Old Aberdeen's High Street and the New Building ("New King's"), constructed in 1913.

Forming the north side of the original quadrangle of King's College, construction of the chapel began in 1498 and ended with the consecration of the building in 1509.

[6] The chapel is dedicated to the Trinity and the Blessed Virgin Mary in her Nativity,[7][8] yet also commemorates a number of Scottish and British monarchs, as well as the patrons and founders of the university.

The original buildings and High Street form the heart of the modern campus and are still used for teaching, to house academic departments, and other university activities.