Publication Account

Date 1998

Event ID 1019245

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1019245

To the north-east of the cloister and ranges are the foundations of the Abbot's Hall figure 20.C, which date from the thirteenth century. It was probably a two-storeyed building, accommodating storage on the ground floor and the abbot's private chambers on the upper. Little of this now remains. A little further west stands the Commendator's House 20.D, first built in the fifteenth century, but largely converted in 1590 by James Douglas, the last commendator of the abbey. Originally consisting of at least three rooms on the ground floor, each with a hooded fireplace, the upper floor was reached by an outside staircase to the north and a timber gallery on the eastern facade. The Douglas reconstruction removed the gallery, added a square stair-tower in the south-east corner, inserted vaulted cellars and a kitchen on the ground floor and reorganised the upper rooms.

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