Field Visit
Date May 1914 - December 1914
Event ID 1088614
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1088614
258. Dryburgh Abbey.
The ruined abbey of Dryburgh stands upon an elevated peninsula formed by a loop of the river Tweed which encircles it on the west and south sides, and is distant about 5 miles to the south-east of Melrose. To the north of the site there is a cruciform church with choir, nave, and transepts. The cloister garth has occupied the lower ground immediately to the south of the nave, having on the east side a range of conventual buildings including ‘St Modan's Chapel’ or the sacristy, the parlour, the chapterhouse, the calefactory, the slype, and another apartment to the south (figs. 123 and 124). The upper floor of this east wing would be used as the monks' dormitory communicating with the south transept in the usual way by means of an open staircase formed at the southwest angle. The refectory probably occupied the south side of the cloister-garth, but owing to the rapid fall of the ground southwards it has been raised to the required level by a basement of vaulted cellars. On the west side of the cloister-garth only three vaulted cellars remain at the north end. A small stream which bounds the Abbey precincts to the south is spanned by a small arched bridge, access to which has been guarded by a gatehouse on the south bank.
[see RCAHMS 1915, pp.132-48, for a full architectural description and historical note]
RCAHMS 1915, visited May: Dec. 1914.
OS Map, Ber., xxx. SW. and SE.
