Melrose Abbey (review)

This account of one of Scotland's most important medieval monasteries has been written for the interested general reader and forms part of a series of occasional publications that aim to contribute to an increased awareness of historic monuments in the care of Historic Scotland. Melrose Abbey was a Cistercian house, filiated to Rievaulx in Yorkshire, founded in the Borders in 1137 by King David I. It was thus the earliest Cistercian house founded in Scotland and for most of its existence was one of the richest abbeys in the country with an extensive endowment of landed estates, based on a core of land between the River Tweed and the Eildon Hills, but which contained estates throughout lowland Scotland. From the 1560s a diminishing number of monks carried out the monastic offices, but it was not until 1609 that the last monk, John Watson, died and the abbey was officially dissolved.

This book splits the description and interpretation of the development of the abbey into three sections entitled: the history of the abbey, the architecture of the abbey and the estates and possessions of the abbey. The history of the abbey and the analysis of its endowment are written by Richard Oram. He first explores the existence of Old Melrose, a seventh-century monastic foundation in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia, but most of the discussion concerns the Cistercian house and its swift development into an important religious and political centre from the mid-twelfth century. Melrose's history was fundamentally affected by the endemic warfare between Scotland and England from the late thirteenth century onwards, and its location on one of the major routes north for invading English armies meant that it was not only of vital strategic importance but also suffered periodic attacks requiring reconstruction of the church and conventual buildings. The most damaging of these attacks was in 1385, when Richard II's army made a particularly thorough job of sacking of the abbey.

Oram has produced an eloquent narrative, which demonstrates why Melrose Abbey played such an important part in the politico-religious medieval history of Scotland. The text is arranged into a chronological sequence rather than thematically, and benefits from such an approach, largely due to the lucid and approachable writing style. Particularly important is the examination of the way in which the abbey was affected by periods of both warfare and stability in the Scottish borders from the 1290s throughout the fourteenth century. The third section of the book includes a relatively detailed discussion of the landed endowment of the abbey, estate by estate. This integrates discussion of the ways in which a large Cistercian abbey was able to consolidate its landholdings with the realities of building up an endowment in the Scottish lowlands during the Middle Ages and the inevitable disputes with other large landowners such as Kelso Abbey and the bishopric of St Andrews. This section also includes a useful review of the urban properties of the abbey and its appropriated churches, important subjects that are often excluded from histories of monastic houses. This discussion of the abbey's estates and possessions allows us to understand Melrose within its socio-economic setting rather than simply as an isolated religious institution.

The middle section is written by Richard Fawcett, Principal Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Historic Scotland. This details the architectural development of the abbey, concentrating primarily on the church but also discussing the other precinct buildings such as the claustral ranges, the abbot's house and the commendator's house. Fawcett's discussion is authoritative and well-illustrated, with almost 100 black-and-white photographs, sketches and plans. The sacking of the abbey by Richard II's army in 1385 resulted in the destruction of the church and most of the monastic buildings, so evidence for the plan and character of the pre-1385 church can only be retrieved through the results of the limited excavations carried out at Melrose in the first half of the twentieth century. However, for the...