Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016225
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016225
Built of pale, reddish-brown sandstone, the Abbey lies in a horse-shoe bend of the Tweed, several kilometres downstream from Melrose and a little south of the mid 7th century monastic promontory site to St Cuthbert at Old Melrose (NT 588340), well-observed from Scott's View (NT 593342). It was founded by the Premonstratensian Order, brought from Alnwick in 1140. They were a reformed group of Augustinians and this was their first of only six houses in Scotland. As an order they were 'open'-they could go out and serve in the parishes which formed part of their endowment
Though Dryburgh was less troubled than Jedburgh or Kelso, like Melrose it was wasted by the English in 1322, and rebuilt with the financial assistance of Robert the Bruce. Much of what survives today, however, is earlier-of 12th and 13th century date.
The church comprised an arched nave, short transepts with little chapels on their east sides, and a squareheaded presbytery also with side chapels. Much of the northern transept and its attendant chapels still stands and in St Mary's Aisle are housed the post-Reformation tombs of the Erskines, Haliburtons and Scotts. Sir Waiter Scott is buried here, and nearby, outside the chapel, Field Marshal Earl Haig of Bermersyde.
Like Jedburgh, Dryburgh was of modest height But whilst at Jedburgh the main arcade extended upwards to enclose the triforium-the windowless gallery below the clearstory-here it retains a separate identity, albeit only by being 'squeezed'. It is represented above the transept chapel simply by small openings above each arch.
The 15th century west end of the Abbey church lies flush to a high, enclosing cloister wall (where more usually would have been a range of claustral buildings). Elsewhere around the cloisters stood the refectory, warming house, library and vestry, parlour, Novices' day-room, dormitories. The Chapter house, where the monks met daily, contains a fine stone basin decorated with bird-like creatures and some late 12th century painted plasterwork. It has a barrel-vaulted roof and an arched sedilia (priests' seat) along the east wall.
Dryburgh is often thought to be the most romantic of the Border Abbeys. 'Romance' of another strain perhaps is enshrined in an 18th century gravestone just outside the ruined nave. William Forson, whose ancestors were tenants in Drygrange and Redpath Mills for 250 years, was exiled to Ireland for Nonconformity; he returned in 1689 to Holydeanmill where he died in 1748.
Information from 'Exploring Scotland's Heritage: Lothian and Borders', (1985).
