Melrose Abbey and St Boswells

The morning started well.... I had the best sleep for weeks. I was sooooo tired, I was in bed by 9pm last night and I slept for 10 hours nearly! The mighty Hawks were playing from 4am but I wasn't tempted! When I eventually did wake it was only a few minutes to go and a bit nerve wracking, but we did it!!!! Yay!!!!

There was a lovely soft mist swathing the bridges this morning. When I first woke it was quite dense and I couldn't even see them but by the time I got my camera out, it had eased a bit!

Morning mist over the bridge - from my window.

So... what was I to do with this day. I had the car so I had options. I decided to visit Melrose Abbey which GMaps told me was just about one hour out of my present location.

Today's journey

I had thoughts about maybe also visiting Jedburgh Abbey and maybe Rosslyn Chapel on the way back, but as I drove along, there were big electronic signs warning of  Yellow Alert - major thunderstorms on the way! That was enough for me to do the basics and get home again!!!

I made one detour on the way home to St Boswells, but more about that later!

I loved Melrose Abbey. Once again I was given an audio tour and they had so much information. They even have "extra" buttons, so you can get the history behind the history. Today was very much about the Cistercian monks and they added all kinds of extra information about their Benedictine history and their way of life.

Here's an introduction from the Melrose Abbey website...

David I founded Melrose Abbey, the first Cistercian monastery in Scotland, in 1136. It was one of a number of abbeys that he set up in the Borders to show both his piety and his power over this contested territory.

The Cistercians were drawn to this fertile spot beside the River Tweed by its close associations with St Aidan and St Cuthbert. The monks came from Rievaulx Abbey in Yorkshire, the Cistercians’ great northern English missionary base.

Monastic life continued at Melrose for the next 450 years. The last monk, John Watson, died around 1590. The crumbling abbey church was used as a parish church until a new kirk was built nearby in 1810.

Notice once again our friends St Aidan and St Cuthbert rate a mention again... their fingerprints are all over the history of Northern England and Scotland.
In fact St Cuthbert's Way begins next to Melrose Abbey...

St Cuthbert's Way begins here.

The Cistercians were known as the White Monks because of their simple white robes. They were a break-away group from the Benedictines as they saw the monasteries becoming too rich and losing their way in terms of faith and commitment.

They lived very simply from the land and were self sufficient, with their entire life being manual labour and prayer.

Melrose Abbey Ruins

There was so much information I'm not sure what to include.... once again I took a heap of pics, but I can't always remember what they told me on the audio guide!

Perhaps a bit more from the Melrose Abbey website :

A focal point of the Borders

The great abbey church of St Mary the Virgin at Melrose loomed large in the lives of many people on both sides of the border.

Powerful people endowed the abbey richly and it was a highly desirable final resting place. Alexander II (died 1249) was among the privileged people to be buried here. The heart of Robert the Bruce (died 1329) was also buried at Melrose, although his body was interred at Dunfermline Abbey.

Melrose’s location put it on the front line of conflict with England during the later Middle Ages:

• attacks by Edward I (1300 and 1307) and Edward II (1322) required major repairs
• Richard II’s attack in 1385 led to a complete rebuilding of the abbey church
• the War of the Rough Wooing in the 1540s caused further damage

Melrose Abbey

Apparently the work load of farming and praying got a bit too much for the poor monks, so they invited some less educated men to become lay brothers. However, these were separated from the actual choir monks and ate and prayed in different places. The audio guide suggested this was not altogether bad for these men as they were better off than many of the local peasants. At least they had 2 good meals a day, a roof over their head and it lasted for their life time!!! But their main job was manual labour - that's what they were there for!!!

The wall in the Church that separated the lay brothers from the choir monks

Explanation of the above.

Connection with Bruges

Side chapel

The monks used to come down and pray at regular intervals during the  night - 2 am and 4am. So they had a special staircase called the night stair so they could come straight down to the Church.

About the Night Stairs

Night Stairs

There were some very old statues still standing - one of St Peter and one of St Paul.
Couldn't quite get a pic of them, but here's the board explaining about them.

There was also a very old statue of the Virgin Mary outside just at the junction of the lay brothers and the choir wall.....

Statue of Mary up the top

Just beside it was a famous gargoyle of the pig playing the bagpipes, but I couldn't get a decent pic of it, so I've pinched one from their website...

Pig playing bagpipes

Perhaps one more interesting thing was how up to date their farming and technology was for their time. They organised their latrines around used water from the mill and redirected the River Tweed to flush it all away.

Monks' latrine system.

Bottom right calls them "piss pots"!

One more interesting fact... In 1385 King Richard II was responsible for both burning the monastery and then restoring it. Apparently the monasteries in the border country were always being  pillaged and burned as part of the power struggle between England and Scotland. Richard II sent a large garrison to retake Scottish land and ordered everything to be burnt to the ground. Then, once it was English territory again he ordered the restoration of the monastery again! Bit weird!!!

There was one more place I wanted to go. My friend Fiona and I had been exchanging texts all morning and she told me her mother was born in St Boswells which is about 10 minutes from Melrose, so I did a little loop and took some pics there.....

Here you go, Fiona!!!

St Boswell's Village Hall

St Boswell's Village Hall

The sign says "What lady ministers wear under their cassocks!" In the church yard at St Boswells

Main Street St Boswells

Main Street St Boswells

So, that was my day. I just loved driving myself again, especially when I got out into the rolling hills of the country. I've spent so much time in the Highlands, it was good to see the Lowlands as well..

Here's a few pics I took on the way...

Scottish lowlands

Scottish lowlands

Scottish lowlands

It's been a lovely day and I've even been to Mass tonight. That was a bit of a blast from the past again, but everywhere is different.Sang some old songs from Rosanna days.... Colours of day dawn into the mind....etc..... bet that gets into your brain!!!

So, just one more day in Scotland. Not sure what tomorrow holds as we battle with the crowd from the cruise liner. Might be forced to just stay home and watch the replay of today's match!!!!


I have loved every minute of Scotland. I'm very grateful for this opportunity to experience it.

Hope you've enjoyed the journey too!