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Britain - Photo and History Pages Paradoxplace BRITISH ABBEYS AND CATHEDRALS
Melrose Abbey Cistercian Abbey just north of the Scottish Border - Dedicated 1146 One of Scottish King David's (c 1083 - 1124 - 1153 (70)) Border Abbeys
Links to the Border Abbeys of Dryburg and Jedburg
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The original site of Melrose Abbey was just below "Scott's View", surrounded on three sides by the River Tweed, with the 3 heather topped Eildon Hills as a backdrop. The lookout and view are now named after Sir Walter Scott (whose tomb is in Dryburgh Abbey). This early abbey was founded by St Aidan in about A.D. 660, it's first prior was St Boisil, one of whose succesors was St Cuthbert, the saint of the Borders, who dwelt there until 664 when he took over Lindesfarne.
In 1131, David I, King of Scots (c 1083 - 1124 - 1153 (70)) , persuaded the Cistercians to found a new abbey on a new site a couple of miles away. The new abbey was dedicated on Sunday 28 July 1146.
This second abbey lasted until it was pillaged and burned to the ground by the English forces of Richard II (son of the Black Prince who knew more than most about mindless destruction) in the mid 1380s. From the ashes rose a beautiful gothic abbey and monastic complex, the ruins of which survive today.
Some time after Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries (late 1530s) the abbey's choir was restructured into a parish church, with an artless barrel vault resting on a huge wall. At least the builders had the grace not to knock down the delicate ribbed gothic vaulting of the much earlier and much more skilled Cistercian builders.
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Scottish King Robert I (1274 - 1306 - 1329 (55)) ("Robert the Bruce") ordered that his heart be buried at Melrose Abbey. Recent excavations around the old Chapter House location uncovered a sealed lead container, presumed to have the remains of the legendary King's heart in it, and it was reinterred under this stone. |
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All original material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be hotlinked, or reproduced without permission
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