 The interiors of churches were often more elaborate before the Reformation , with highly decorated sacrament houses , like the ones surviving at <unk> and <unk> . The carvings at <unk> Chapel , created in the mid @-@ fifteenth century , elaborately depicting the progression of the seven deadly sins , are considered some of the finest in the Gothic style . <unk> effigies began to appear in churches from the thirteenth century and they were usually fully coloured and gilded . Many were founders and patrons of churches and chapels , including members of the clergy , knights and often their wives . In contrast to England , where the fashion for stone @-@ carved monuments gave way to brass <unk> , they continued to be produced until the end of the Medieval period , with the largest group dating from the fifteenth century , including the very elaborate Douglas tombs in the town of Douglas . Sometimes the best continental artists were employed , as for Robert I 's elaborate tomb in <unk> Abbey , which was made in his lifetime by the Parisian sculptor Thomas of <unk> , but of which only fragments now survive . The greatest group of surviving sculpture from this period are from the West Highlands , beginning in the fourteenth century on Iona under the patronage of the Lordship of the Isles and continuing until the Reformation . Common motifs were ships , swords , <unk> and Romanesque vine leaf tracery with Celtic elements . 
