Underneath The Arches

Are these Arches or are they really cloisters? Anyway, this is part of Kings College in Old Aberdeen.
The University and King's College of Aberdeen (Collegium Regium Abredonense) was the first university in Aberdeen, the third in Scotland and the fifth in the United Kingdom. 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. A papal bull was issued in February 1495 (1491 in the calendar of the day) founding the university; a Royal charter later that year recognised Aberdeen's status as equal to that of Scotland's two existing universities at Glasgow and St Andrews. As a former professor at the University of Paris, Elphinstone modeled the university very much on the continental European tradition. Hector Boece, a fellow professor at Paris, was awarded the status of first Principal of the new institution.
It would not be until 1509, with the issuance of a Charter by Elphinstone, that university life at King's truly began. Construction of the Chapel began in 1498; it was consecrated in 1509 and dedicated to St Mary. By 1514, the university had some forty two members in the form of both staff and students.
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 April 1593 Keith founded a second university in the city, Marischal College. Initially, Marischal offered the Principal of King's College a role in selecting its academics, however this was refused by the King's authorities - cited as the first blow in a future rivalry.
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.
I have cropped this picture and performed a minor colour adjustment to bring it out better.