Yesterday my mother and I visited Jedburgh Abbey. We are really blessed with wonderful ruined abbeys here in the Scottish Borders and this was one I had not been to before. As the Scottish - English Border is just south of Jedburgh this also gave my mother a chance to visit England, even if only for a very short time! She took a few steps and then returned to Scotland!
Jedburgh Abby was founded by King David I in 1138 although it was never completed. They were still building when Henry VIII dissolved the monastic houses (1560), and even before that, suffered repeated attacks during the non-stop warfare between English and Scottish cattle thieves. However this Augustinian abbey is one of the most complete in Scotland and the stonework is a true marvel. Helpfully a taped commentary was provided for every visitor with suitable music during the intervals so we found out a lot about the abbey's history.
There is still a lot of restoration work ongoing and several parts of the abbey had scaffolding attached to keep it safe. It did interfere slightly with the photography but at least this way the visitors can be sure there will be no stones coming down on their heads. Which was just as well as I lay down flat on the ground to take some of these pictures!
1 comment:
well, this is certainly gorgeous. I am making a list of places to visit for when Steven & I one day make the trek to visit you in the Scottish Borders -oh happy day : )
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