Publication Account

Date 1998

Event ID 1019243

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1019243

Melrose is dominated by the buildings of its historic past-the Cistercian abbey and complex figures 5 & 10 (see also area 1). Although partially destroyed by time and human wilfulness, restoration work in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has not only highlighted the beauty of the ruins, but also brought a clearer understanding of the original functions of the various parts of this fine medieval monastery.

A section of the west wall figure 20.L is all that remains of the first church built by Abbot Richard and his twelve monks, dedicated in 1146. In 1385, Richard II destroyed the twelfth-century church, ‘saving nothing and burning down with the fiery flames God's temples and holy places, to wit the monasteries of Melrose, Dryburgh and Newbattle'.

The work of rebuilding the abbey began within a few years of its destruction probably with the active support of Richard II. Architectural evidence suggests that English masons were participating in this work, but that responsibility for the building work later passed to masons influenced by the European tradition. The tracery in the south transept window and in the south aisle chapels, for example, suggests that the original English masons had been replaced by others influenced by French fashion. Part of the south transept was the responsibility of the French master mason, John Morow. An inscription on the west wall of the south transept, now removed to the Commendator's house for safe-keeping, and another, still in situ, refer to this master-mason. The first reads: '.John Morow sometimes called was I and born in Paris certainly and had in keeping all the mason work of St Andrews, the high kirk of Glasgow, Melrose and Paisley, of Nithsdale and Galloway. I pray to God and Mary both and sweet St John to keep this holy church from harm'; and the second: '.As the compass goes evenly about, so truth and loyalty shall do without doubt. Look to the end quoth John Morow.'

The work of reconstruction continued throughout the fifteenth and into the sixteenth century; and Melrose Abbey re-emerged as one of the most magnificent in Scotland figure 10, even though work petered out inconclusively as it approached the west end, the existing front not being entirely demolished. The western part of the nave was for the use of the lay brothers, who appear to have disappeared from the order sometime in the fifteenth century. It was perhaps for this reason that the necessity to complete the western section had become less urgent.

The other conventual buildings stood to the north of the church, an unusual location for a Cistercian establishment, perhaps determined by the water supply, the River Tweed, to the north. Ruins of these buildings also attest to the splendour of the complex. These consisted of the cloister figure 20.B, which was an open garth, probably laid out as a garden, surrounded by covered walkways. Near the east processional door to the church the surviving walls indicate that they were elaborately arcaded and had stone benches. An east range 20.M, which partially survives, contained the sacristy, immediately to the north of the church. This was where vestments, altar frontals and other pertinents of church service were kept. Next to this was the chapter house 20.N, where the monks met every morning to listen to a chapter of the Rule, discuss monastic business and confess to failings and misdemeanours. It was here, also, that important burials took place figure 9, perhaps the most noted being that of St Waltheof. Other offices abutted, probably the inner parlour, where there was limited conversation, perhaps a novices' day room and a latrine block, all of which were under the monks' dormitory, which ran along the full length of the east range, on the first floor. There is now no evidence of this last.

Information from ‘Historic Melrose: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1998).