Balmerino Abbey
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Balmerino Abbey by ronnie leask as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Balmerino Abbey
Image: © ronnie leask Taken: 22 Jun 1994
In the year 1225 Queen Ermengarde, the widow of King William the Lion chose this spot to build an abbey and in 1229 a band of Cistercian monks came here from the abbey at Melrose.When she died in 1232 Ermengarde was buried beneath the high altar. The abbey flourished for some 300 years until in 1547 the Duke of Somerset sent an English fleet to set fire to it. A fine specimen of a Spanish Chestnut tree, over 700 years old, survives in what had been the monks orchard. The abbey is now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
56.409253
Longitude
-3.041988