CULROSS, Fife
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In 1589 the property was erected into a tem
poral lordship for James Colville of Easter Wemyss and in 1609 he was created Lord Colville of Culross. In 1633 the east choir of the abbey church was taken over for use as a parish church while the adjoining buildings fell into decay. In 1642 the north transept was converted into a tomb house by Sir George Bruce of Carnock; carved effigies of him, his wife, and eight children can still be viewed there today. The abbey church was restored in 1823, although this operation removed many of the original features, including the transept chapels.
COUPAR ANGUS Abbey, Perth
The first plan may have been projected by King David I who intended to found the house on his manor at Coupar Angus, though it was left to his grandson, King Malcolm IV the Maiden, to carry out his proposal. The first Cistercians arrived at the site in 1161/2, but it was not until 12 July 1164 that the full convent arrived from Melrose. There was a dedication of the church on 15 May 1233.
The house seems to have been a victim of English attack; in 1305 the abbot sent a petition to King Edward’s parliament of 28 Feb 1305 seeking compensation for the burning of its granges and other damage. During the mid-fourteenth century, the house experienced some financial difficulties, although there seems to have been a revival of fortunes by the later Middle Ages.
In 1521 the abbey had a community of twenty-eight monks; numbers may have dropped slightly during the following decades. By the mid-sixteenth century, Coupar Angus had become the wealthiest of the Cistercian monasteries in Scotland. According to the Books of Assumptions of thirds of benefices, which was begun in 1561, the abbey had an annual income of £5, 590. Part of this income was derived from the wool trade. The community traded with continental Europe, buying locally and exporting via Perth.
According to one seventeenth-century writer, the abbey was attacked and burned by a group of Reformers, probably c. 1559. The last abbot, Donald Campbell, died between December 1562 and January 1563 and the property was granted to Leonard Leslie two years later. The abbey was erected into a temporal lordship for James Elphinstone, son of the James Elphinstone who had been granted the estates of Balmerino three years earlier. James Elphinstone, the younger, was given the title of Lord Coupar
After the death of Lord Coupar in 1669 the monastery was used as a source of building materials, and much of the stone was incorporated into the town that grew up around the precinct. A new church was built in 1686, and is thought to occupy the site of the old abbey church. The present church, on the same site, dates from about 1859. The only upstanding fragment of the abbey is the gatehouse but there are many carved and moulded stones around the existing church. The site is on the south side of the town of Coupar Angus and the remains can be found to the south-east of the church.
DEER Abbey, Aberdeen was founded in 1219 by William Comyn, earl of Buchan. Plans were put in motion in 1214 when William petitioned the General Chapter to inquire into the suitability of the proposed site and the sufficiency of the endowment. According to Celtic legend, a monastery had already been established at this site some centuries earlier. It is thought that in the last quarter of the sixth century St. Columcille, his disciple Drostan, and others went from Hy (lona) into Buchan and established an important missionary centre at Deer on the banks of the Ugie on lands given him by the chief of the district. Columcille soon after left the site to continue on his missionary journeys and left Drostan as abbot of Deer. Drostan remained at the monastery until his death in c. 606. This monastery is also associated with the ninth-century gospel book, known as the ‘Book of Deer’, now in the University Library at Cambridge. The author was probably a monk at Deer, living some time during the eighth century. There was still a community of some sort at the site when William made his own foundation, two miles westward of Columcille’s abbey of Old Deer.
The Normans had little sympathy with the Celtic institutions so it is not surprising to find that William granted the Cistercian monks a portion of the lands of Old Deer, while the rest were appropriated for the maintenance of a parochial church. A small group of monks may have been present at the site before the convent arrived from Kinloss in 1219, and it is possible that some of them had earlier been members of the community at Old Deer.
During the mid-sixteenth century the abbey had a community of between eleven and thirteen monks. In 1561 the annual income of the abbey was valued at £2300, a fairly average figure when compared to the other Cistercian houses in Scotland. The last abbot, John Innes, resigned in 1543. The following yeare Robert Keith, brother of the fourth Earl of Marischal, became titular abbot of Deer, holding the lands in ‘commendam’. After his death in 1551 the commendatorship passed to Robert Keith, son of William, the fourth Earl of Marischal. Keith retained his office over the Reformation period and in 1587 the abbey was erected into a temporal lordship for him, when he took the title of Lord Altrie. In the following years the abbey fell into decline with much of the stonework being carried away for use as building materials.
BALMERINO Abbey, Fife was founded by Queen Ermengarde, widow of William the Lion and great granddaughter of William the Conqueror, and her son King Alexander II (1214-49). The abbey was situated on the north coast of fife, overlooking the Firth of Tay and was dedicated to the Virgin and to Ermengardes relative ‘the most holy King Edward’, the Confessor. It is likely that Ermengarde intended Balmerino to be her burial place and she was actively acquiring land for its foundation as early as 1225.
The Chronicle of Melrose states that in ‘the yeare of the Lord 1229, the abbey was made by K. Alexander and his mother and the convent was sent to it from Melrose’. However, it may be that a small community had arrived at Balmerino by 1227 and that conventional life was established two years later when a company of monks from Melrose were able to enter the abbey and take possession. The site of the abbey provided the monks with everything they could need: there was the river Tay for fishing and its rich banks for growing orchards and grain. Alexander II also added generously to his mothers endowments. Ermengarde and Alexander were frequent visitors at the abbey, especially Ermengarde who was much influenced by the intense piety of her grandmother-in-law, Margaret of Scots. In 1234 Ermengarde passed away and her body was laid to rest under the high altar of the abbey.
In December 1547 Balmerino was attacked by the English. However, the abbey does not seem to have been significantly damaged: at least sixteen monks can be found at the monastery during this period and, in 1561, the annual income of the abbey was valued at £1773, making Balmerino one of the richer abbeys in Scotland. In 1559 some destruction was caused by the Reformers but the extent of the damage is difficult to assess. The last pre-Reformation abbot was Robert Foster who held the position from 1511/12 until his death shortly before February 1561. In September 1561 possession of the monastery was acquired by Sir John Hay, first Lay Commendator of the abbey. In 1565 Mary queen of Scots was a visitor at the abbey and more than likely lived in the abbot’s house as a guest of Sir John Hay. In 1603 the lands were erected into a temporal lordship by Sir James Elphinstone, first lord of Balmerino. However, the lordship seems to have been tainted with misfortune: both the first and second Lords of Balmerino were sentenced to death and the sixth and last was beheaded as a Jacobite in France in 1746.