The few fragments which survive of this once extensive structure stand
on a height overlooking the Frith of Tay from its south or Fife shore,
about three or four miles south-west from Dundee.
The Cistercian Abbey of Balmerino was founded in the year 1229 by Queen
Ermengard, widow of William the Lion, and her son, Alexander II. The
foundation charter by the latter is dated 3rd February 1230-1. The abbey
was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and to the most holy King Edward.
Queen Ermengard obtained possession of the adjoining lands in the year
1225, and it is supposed that building operations were commenced
immediately after the foundation, as on the 13th December 1229, the
original colony of monks for Balmerino set out from Melrose under the
guidance of Alan, the first abbot. The building must probably then have
made some progress to be in a fit state for their occupation. Ermengard
died in 1233 and was buried in the church, and, according to
Spottiswoode, her place of sepulture was before the high altar. She was
a liberal benefactress to the abbey, and Alexander, her son, took a
continued interest in its affairs after her death, and was a frequent
visitor at Balmerino. During the time of Ralph, the second abbot
(1236-1251), the abbey received the first confirmation of its privileges
and possessions from Pope Innocent IV. It is undated, but the Rev. Dr.
Campbell, in his account of the abbey, assigns its date to between 1242
and 1246. About the last decade of the thirteenth century, Hugo of Nydie
grants the use of his quarry of Nydie to the abbey, and also a toft,
with the privilege of grazing on the common pasture of Nydie. Dr.
Campbell conjectures that as the journey between the quarry and
Balmerino was too long to be performed both ways on the same day, the
toft would form the lodging for the men, and the pasturage for the
draught animals. In this connection William of Burglyn grants “that old
road through his land of Burthlyn, by which the monks were wont to go
with their carts and other carriages to the quarry of Nidyn;” and
further, “if it shall happen that the carts and waggons of the monks
shall at any time halt at the ford of Burglyn on account of any
hindrance in crossing, he grants them permission in such a case to
unyoke and feed their beasts there, and, if necessary, to stay over the
night.”[177]
Beyond the above facts, there is no information whatever preserved that
has any bearing on the history of the erection of the abbey buildings.
No contracts are referred to, nor in its records is the name of any
particular abbot associated with the building of any part of the abbey.
The next recorded event in connection with the structure is its
destruction, or partial destruction, during Somerset’s invasion in 1547,
when Admiral Thomas Wyndham, on the night of the 25th December, assailed
the monastery, and in the words of his own report,[178] “he bornt the
abbey with all thyngs that wer in it.” This damage was, doubtless, to a
certain extent repaired; but a more serious encounter was approaching.
In 1559 Balmerino suffered the usual fate of similar establishments. The
Earl of Argyle and the Prior of St. Andrews, having destroyed the
churches of St. Andrews, “convened a great company of countrymen and
passed to the abbeys of Lindores and Balmerino, the Parish Kirks within
Fife, and did the like.”[179] Bishop Leslie ascribes the demolition of
the abbey to “certain most worthless men, of the common people.”
As usually happened in connection with all the other abbeys at this
period, a nobleman or Court favourite was appointed commendator, who
drew two-thirds of the revenue, the remainder being reserved for the
reformed minister and the Crown. John Hay, descended from the family of
Naughton (a large property in the neighbourhood), was appointed
commendator in 1561. The office was resigned into the king’s hands in
1605, whereupon the abbacy was converted into a temporal lordship, in
favour of Sir James Elphinstone, with the title of Lord Balmerino.
The abbey buildings (Fig. 898) are in a very ruinous state, only the
chapter house with the erections adjoining it being at all well
preserved. The north wall of the nave with the west wall of the north
transept remain throughout their whole length for about 5 feet above the
ground. In the month of March 1896, the Rev. Dr. Campbell was allowed by
the proprietor to make some excavations, and as the result of a few
days’ work sufficient remains were disclosed to enable a fairly
accurate plan of the church to be made. And if the work of excavation
were carried further, the rubbish removed, and most of the trees cut
down which at present crowd the site, there is no doubt but that a much
more complete plan of the church and abbey would be disclosed.
[Illustration: FIG. 898.--Balmerino Abbey. Plan.]
The church is situated, as at the mother church of Melrose, on the south
side of the cloister. It consisted of a nave with a south aisle (there
being no north aisle), transepts with the usual eastern aisle, and a
short presbytery without aisles. The internal dimensions of the church
were as follows:--Total length from east to west about 206 feet, width
of nave about 45 feet, length of transepts and crossing about 98 feet,
width of transept (including the east aisle) about 46 feet, and width of
presbytery about 25 feet.
[Illustration: FIG. 899.--Balmerino Abbey. Plan of Piers and Responds.]
Three of the vaulting shafts of the nave exist against the north wall
(their section is shown in Fig. 899); but they are so situated as to
give an unequal division to the bays. Until the ivy is stripped from the
walls, and the accumulated debris of centuries is removed from the
floor, nothing more definite can be ascertained regarding them; but
assuming that two of the responds are in their proper places at a
distance of 20 feet apart--of which there seems to be no doubt--this
would give a nave of six bays. In the line of the nave piers various
foundations have been laid bare, as shown on Plan. Beginning at the west
end a foundation projects inwards 5 feet; next it there is a cross wall
about 10 feet in length; then further to the east, two foundations as if
for piers, and next them the great south-east pier of the crossing, one
side of which is quite entire and is shown in Fig. 899. It measures
along the diagonal face 6 feet 10 inches by 7 feet 7 inches across.
There were three such piers, the fourth (see Fig. 899) being made up
with the responds at the junction of the nave and transept walls at the
north-west corner of the crossing. Each transept probably contained two
bays. The respond against the north transept wall still exists.
[Illustration: FIG. 900.--Balmerino Abbey. Plan of West Doorway.]
The west doorway (Fig. 900) was evidently one of considerable
importance. It was a double doorway, 8 feet 8 inches wide, the central
pillar being about 14 inches square; only the merest fragment of the
base of the doorway has been unearthed. The ingoing probably extended
with a wide splay outwards, decorated with shafts, the base of one of
these being in situ. The south-west corner of the church is one of the
best preserved fragments. It consists of a deeply splayed base of
beautiful masonry, with an angle buttress, measuring 7 feet on each
face, with a projection of nearly 5 feet. This buttress probably
contained a wheel stair for access to the roof. The north-west corner
has not been cleared of rubbish. At the south-east corners of the
transept and of the presbytery there are foundations (as shown on Plan),
of which at present nothing definite can be made. The details of the
church indicate a building in the first pointed style of the thirteenth
century.
Entering from the south transept is the sacristy, a chamber 32 feet 4
inches long by 23 feet wide, covered with a round barrel vault. All the
buildings to the north of the church appear to have been to a greater or
less extent altered and adapted by the commendators, in order to form a
mansion house, so that they do not now quite represent their original
condition.
[Illustration: FIG. 901.--Balmerino Abbey. Plan of Charter House.]
To the north of the sacristy is the chapter house, with a doorway
between them, which is not original. This has been a very fine
apartment, measuring about 56 feet long by about 27 feet 3 inches wide.
It is divided into two compartments, the eastern compartment being the
chapter house proper, and the western the vestibule (see Fig. 901). The
eastern half is probably of a slightly later date than the western half.
It was vaulted, like the western half, with groined vaulting, but at a
much higher level and with arches of a much greater span, having had one
central pillar instead of the two in the older part. The central pillar
is entirely gone; and of the high vaulting only the wall ribs, with the
corbels from which the ribs sprang, remain (see Fig. 902). From the
indications of the ribs which remain, the vaulting has been restored in
dotted lines. It is quite obvious from Fig. 902 that this vaulting was
removed to admit of an upper room at the lower level of the western
vault.
[Illustration: FIG. 902.--Balmerino Abbey. Chapter House, from
South-East.]
The western division or vestibule (Fig. 903) has two octagonal centre
pillars, with no wall responds in a line with them, the vaulting at the
wall springing from rounded corbels; eastwards, there are two larger
octagonal pillars with responds. The height of the pillars is about 7
feet 10 inches, and to the apex of the vaulting the height is about 14
feet 9 inches.
The western wall of the chapter house is gone, and only some portions of
a later wall remain. Owing to this the western compartments of the
[Illustration: FIG. 903.--Balmerino Abbey. Chapter House, from
North-West.]
vaulting have fallen, all except the part shown by strong lines at the
south side of this compartment, which merely holds together by the
tenacity of the mortar. Unless means are shortly taken to support this
fragment, it will soon give way and come to the ground. There was a
continuous seat round the entire chapter house. The recesses at the east
end on the north side are modern (Fig. 904).
The east wall of the chapter house (Fig. 905) still remains; it contains
two windows, having square heads, built with radiating stones, and
probably had mullions with tracery. The southmost of these windows was,
in the later occupation, converted into a doorway, with fan lights over
(see Fig. 905).
During this period the chapter house formed a part of the residence, the
eastern part being a hall, with some kind of screen or division between
the pillars and the responds, and having a door through the northern
archway, of which door the ends of the stone lintel still remain on each
side. A large fireplace was constructed at the centre arch, and the
chimney flue still remains, as shown on the Plan of the vaulting (see
Fig. 901), with the ribs crossing the flue. About this time the wheel
staircase, seen projecting into the cloister, was probably built. The
chapter house finishes on the top with a row of corbels similar to what
is seen on the pele towers; but the whole is so covered with ivy and
abundant vegetation on the roof that further elucidation of this part of
the building is impossible.
The details of the chapter house, as seen in the vaulting and the carved
work of the caps of the piers and corbels (Fig. 906), belong, probably,
to the first half of the fifteenth century. Adjoining the chapter house
is a vaulted apartment about 28 feet 9 inches long by 11 feet 6 inches
wide, and provided with a seat on either side. It is entered from the
east by a pointed doorway, and is unlighted by any windows. It was
probably the slype. To the north of this is the last building of the
eastern range, which is believed to be the penitentiary. It contains
three cells; the eastmost one, which enters from a hatchway in the
vaulted roof, measures about 8 feet by 6 feet, and is lofty. It was
lighted with a small window, and probably contained a garde-robe. The
adjoining cell shown on the Ground Plan is divided into two--a lower and
an upper cell, the latter entering from a hatchway in the roof, and the
former being some steps down from the ground level. The lower cell is
provided with a stone seat on each side, and so, perhaps, are the
others; but they are so encumbered with rubbish that their details
cannot be made out.
Of the other buildings surrounding the cloister nothing remains except
the indications of the inner wall of the west wing, shown by dotted
lines on Plan, which gives a breadth to the garth, from east to west, of
about 104 feet.
[Illustration: FIG. 904.--Balmerino Abbey. Chapter House, from
South-West.]
[Illustration: FIG. 905.--Balmerino Abbey. South-East Angle of Chapter
House.]
[Illustration: FIG. 906.--Balmerino Abbey. Details of Piers of Chapter
House.]
It is quite possible that the present farmhouse is on the site, if it
did not form a part, of the north-west corner of the cloister. To the
north of this house there still remains a portion of the old granary,
now part of the modern farm-steading. It contains two doorways, one with
a splayed and pointed arch, and the other much wider, having a rounded
top. The west gable, as seen above a modern roof, is constructed as a
dovecot with nests, similar to what is found at Cambuskenneth. On the
skew putt at the north side of the gable there is a coat of arms (Fig.
907), two bars embattled. There is no known coat quite similar to this.
A richly moulded and embattled finial terminates this gable, but it is
broken and mutilated. Another coat of arms, built into the modern walls
of the farm-steading, and shown by Fig. 908, is also unknown, as
likewise are the initials.
[Illustration: FIG. 907.--Balmerino Abbey. Arms on Skew Putt of Barn.]
[Illustration: FIG. 908.--Balmerino Abbey. Dormer in Farm Building.]
[Illustration: FIG. 909.--Balmerino Abbey. Figure of Ecclesiastic.]
[Illustration: FIG. 910.--Balmerino Abbey. Figure in Armour.]
To the east of the chapter house, at a distance of about 90 feet, are
the ruins of what is called on the Plan the abbot’s house. What remains
consists of a vaulted cellar, measuring on the inside about 18 feet 2
inches by 15 feet 7 inches, and separated by a thick wall from a similar
apartment on the north, which only in part survives. How far this
structure extended it is impossible to say. It is constructed of good
masonry, the doorway between the apartments being finely wrought; and it
evidently was an important building.
Adjoining this house, two sculptured figures--one of an ecclesiastic and
the other in mail armour (Figs. 909 and 910)[180]--are stuck into the
ground. The first has probably been a recumbent figure on a tomb, and
the other is an isolated upright figure, the back being as carefully
wrought as the front.
A laudable effort has been made to preserve the ruins by enclosing them
with a lofty fence; but much might yet be done by way of preservation
and disclosure by excavation.