Hi Mairiuna! Delighted to read your last post 🙂
As we have not had the chance to visit this architectural gem by night, as suggested by Sir Walter Scott in his marvelous poem ” The Lay of the Last Minstrel”, this little video created with the photos we took while visiting the site will inspire a certain “sense of place”…
From: Scott's Poetical Works -Edinburgh Edition -1869
By Sir Walter Scott
Canto I
If thou would’st view fair Melrose aright,
Go visit it by the pale moonlight;
For the gay beams of lightsome day
Gild, but to flout, the ruins grey.
When the broken arches are black in night,
And each shafted oriel glimmers white;
When the cold light’s uncertain shower
Streams on the ruin’d central tower;
When buttress and buttress, alternately,
Seem framed of ebon and ivory;
When silver edges the imagery,
And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die;
When distant Tweed is heard to rave,
And the owlet to hoot o’er the dead man’s grave,
Then go–but go alone the while–
Then view St. David’s ruin’d pile;
And, home returning, soothly swear,
Was never scene so sad and fair!
Canto II (…)
Click here => to read the poem’s six cantos in its entirety (French & English Version)
Melrose Abbey By Night, Scotland - Source: In Search of Ancient Scotland, by G.M & D.A. Ruzicki
Melrose Abbey was a Cistercian abbey built by David in 1136 making it the oldest Cistercian monastery in Scotland. All told, it was destroyed and rebuilt about nine times. Although the English nearly finished it off in 1545, monks lived in the abbey for a long time after that. They were only able to stay because they renounced monasticism and joined the Reformed Church.
Up until 1590, when the last monk died off, the records document complaints by the monks about people stealing rock and other materials from the abbey.
Melrose Abbey once must have looked similar to English abbeys and cathedrals like Durham. In its heyday, this huge structure could porbably be seen far away. The stone work is graceful but imposing.
Even on a gray, cold, misty morning in March, we immediately noticed the dramatic flying buttresses and elegant windows. Many stone carvings adorn the walls, a few of them whimsical, like a pig playing the bagpipe. We’d seen a picture of this pig in a book but couldn’t find it on two different visits.
Melrose Abbey roof "pig playing bagpipes" carving © 2007 Scotiana
Parts of abbeys were frequently used for parish churches. Sadly, an ugly stone wall stands in the monk’s choir. Made of rubble taken from the abbey structure, this wall is a remnant of the post-Reformation parish kirk tornd down in 1810.
Very little remains of other abbey structures. Only foundation walls demarcate the monk’s range and cloister. The chapter house featured tiled floors, one of only two abbeys in Scotland. The other, Glenluce Abbey in Galloway, still contains some floor tiles.
The heart of Robert the Bruce is believed buried at Melrose Abbey. Prior to his death, he asked his trusted friend, James Douglas, to take his heart on a crusade to the Holy Land. After Douglas was killed in Spain, Bruce’s heart was returned to Scotland and presumed buried at Melrose. In 1921, archaelogists discovered a mummified human heart beneath the ground of the Chapter House. They reburied it.
In 1996, archaeologists surveying the Chapter House rediscovered the heart in its lead container. This momentous event made headline news in British papers and on TV. We chanced to visit Melrose the day of the discovery and experienced some of the excitement.
Another famous person, Michael Scot the wizard, is believed buried in the south transept in a grave set into the floor with a cross on it. Michael Scot lived in the 13th century. He denounced magic but loved science and astrology. His exploits fostered a large body of Scottish legend.
Historic Scotland manages Melrose Abbey with a gift shop on premises. Signs mark the various abbey structures. At night, floodlights produce dramatic scenes and provide good photo opportunities.
In Search of Ancient Scotland by Gerald M. and Dorothy A. Ruzicki , Aspen Grove Publishing 2000
In Search of Ancient Scotland
To get there : Melrose is located off the A6091 close to Galashiels between the A7 and the A68. The area is richly associated with Sir Walter Scott. His museum-like home, Abbotsford, occupies a pastoral spot on the nearby Tweed River.
Enjoy the read and talk soon,
Janice
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