Lindores Abbey - Newburgh, Fife, Scotland
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creg-ny-baa
N 56° 21.124 W 003° 13.535
30V E 486059 N 6245287
Tironensian Abbey founded in 1191, and sacked by reformists in 1559, now reduced to ivy-clad ruins on the eastern side of the Fife town of Newburgh.
Waymark Code: WM18PNA
Location: Northern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/06/2023
Views: 0
Lindores Abbey was founded on a site just to the east of the town of Newburgh in north-west Fife on the southern side of the Firth of Tay. Founded as a Tironensian Abbey in 1191 as a daughter house to Kelso Abbey by the Earl of Huntingdon, it was built on land granted by his brother William the Lion.
The first abbot was Guido, prior of Kelso, under which the buildings were completed. The church was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and St Andrew and was 195 feet long, with transepts at 110 feet.
During the time here the monks were known to distil rose water and in 1494 Brother John Cor was commissioned by King James IV for 8 bolls of malt, the equivalent of 400 bottles of Scotch Whisky, or Aqua Vitae, the first mention of whisky ever in print. During excavation work in 2018, a distillation vat was discovered.
The end began for the abbey in 1543, when when it was sacked by a mob from Dundee, and in 1559 it suffered further damage by John Knox and his supporters during the reformation. The monks remained for a time but the abbey began to be dismantled around 1584, with stone being quarried for building material in Newburgh.
Today, all that remains in the grounds on the north side of Abbey Road are ivy-clad walls, with the most significant remains being, a gateway leading into the Monastic enclosure, the groin-vaulted slype leading from the cloister garth to the exterior, parts of the chancel walls and western tower of the church, and sections of the precinct wall.