![]() | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(November 2014) |
![]() Photograph, 9 April 2011 | |
Monastery information | |
---|---|
Order | Augustinian |
Established | 1147 x 1169 (priory)/ 1235 (abbey) |
Disestablished | 1609 |
Mother house | none |
Diocese | Diocese of Dunkeld |
Controlled churches | Aberdour; Auchtertool; Beath; Dalgety; Dollar; Leslie; Rosyth |
People | |
Founder(s) | David I of Scotland & Gregoir, Bishop of Dunkeld |
Important associated figures | Walter Bower |
Inchcolm Abbey is a medieval abbey located on the island of Inchcolm in the Firth of Forth in Scotland. The Abbey, which is located at the centre of the island, was founded in the 12th century during the episcopate of Gregoir, Bishop of Dunkeld. Later tradition placed it even earlier, in the reign of King Alexander I of Scotland (1107–24), who had taken shelter on Incholm when his ship was forced ashore during a storm in 1123. It is said he resided there for three days with the Hermit of Incholm. [1]
The Abbey was first used as a priory by Augustinian canons regular, becoming a full abbey in 1235. The island was attacked by the English from 1296 onwards, and the Abbey was abandoned after the Scottish Reformation in 1560. It has since been used for defensive purposes, as it is situated in a strategically important position in the middle of the Firth of Forth. A Latin inscription carved above the Abbey's entrance reads:
Stet domus haec donec fluctus formica marinos ebibat, et totum testudo perambulet orbem
Translated, it has been rendered thus: [2]
"Still may these turrets lift their heads on high,
Nor e’er as crumbling ruins strew the ground,
Until an ant shall drink the ocean dry,
And a slow tortoise travel the world round."
Inchcolm Abbey has the most complete surviving remains of any Scottish monastic house. The cloisters, chapter house, warming house, and refectory are all complete, and most of the remaining claustral buildings survive in a largely complete state. The least well-preserved part of the complex is the monastic church. The ruins are cared for by Historic Environment Scotland, which also maintains a visitor centre near the landing pier (entrance charge; ferry from South Queensferry).
In July 1581 stones from the abbey were taken to Edinburgh to repair the Tolbooth. [3]
Among the Abbots of Inchcolm was the 15th-century chronicler Walter Bower.
The Abbey gives its name to the 14th-century manuscript referred to as the Inchcolm Antiphoner. It contains one of the few remaining examples of Celtic Plainchant. Pages of the Antiphoner can be accessed online in facsimile from the University of Edinburgh.
The Antiphoner contains a substantial number of chants dedicated to Saint Columba. While these may derive from a variety of other monastic foundations with Columban associations, such as Oronsay Priory or Iona, Inchcolm is considered the most likely source of the manuscript's compilation, if not composition.
Aberdour is a scenic and historic village on the south coast of Fife, Scotland. It is on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, looking south to the island of Inchcolm and its Abbey, and to Leith and Edinburgh beyond. According to the 2011 census, the village has a population of 1,633.
Holyrood Abbey is a ruined abbey of the Canons Regular in Edinburgh, Scotland. The abbey was founded in 1128 by David I of Scotland. During the 15th century, the abbey guesthouse was developed into a royal residence, and after the Scottish Reformation the Palace of Holyroodhouse was expanded further. The abbey church was used as a parish church until the 17th century, and has been ruined since the 18th century. The remaining walls of the abbey lie adjacent to the palace, at the eastern end of Edinburgh's Royal Mile. The site of the abbey is protected as a scheduled monument.
Walter Bower was a Scottish canon regular and abbot of Inchcolm Abbey in the Firth of Forth, who is noted as a chronicler of his era. He was born about 1385 at Haddington, East Lothian, in the Kingdom of Scotland. In 1991, Donald Watt said of Bower's Scotichronicon that "We are more and more convinced that this book is one of the national treasures of Scotland, which should be studied in depth for many different kinds of enquiry into Scotland's past."
Inchcolm is an island in the Firth of Forth in Scotland. It was repeatedly attacked by English raiders during the Wars of Scottish Independence, and was fortified during both World Wars to defend nearby Edinburgh. Inchcolm now attracts visitors to its former Augustine Abbey.
St Mary's Abbey, Melrose is a partly ruined monastery of the Cistercian order in Melrose, Roxburghshire, in the Scottish Borders. It was founded in 1136 by Cistercian monks at the request of King David I of Scotland and was the chief house of that order in the country until the Reformation. It was headed by the abbot or commendator of Melrose. Today the abbey is maintained by Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument.
Inchgarvie or Inch Garvie is a small, uninhabited island in the Firth of Forth. On the rocks around the island sit four caissons that make up the foundations of the Forth Bridge.
The Abbey of Saint Mary of Crossraguel is a ruin of a former abbey near the town of Maybole, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Although it is a ruin, visitors can still see the original monks’ church, their cloister and their dovecot.
Inchmahome Priory is situated on Inchmahome, the largest of three islands in the centre of the Lake of Menteith, close to Aberfoyle, Scotland.
Pluscarden Abbey is a Catholic Benedictine monastery in the glen of the Black Burn, six miles southwest of Elgin, Moray, Scotland. It was founded in 1230 by Alexander II for the Valliscaulian Order.
The Battle of Boroughmuir was fought on 30 July 1335 between Guy, Count of Namur, a cousin of Queen Philippa of England, and John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray and Guardian of Scotland. Namur was on his way to join Edward III on his invasion of Scotland, when he was intercepted on the common grazing ground to the south of Edinburgh – the Borough Muir. The fighting continued into the city itself, and concluded in a desperate struggle in the ruins of the old castle. Randolph was victorious in a fight which forms a small part of the Second War of Scottish Independence.
The Abbot of Inchcolm, or until 1235, the Prior of Inchcolm, was the head of the Augustinian monastic community of Inchcolm.
Inchaffray Abbey was situated by the village of Madderty, midway between Perth and Crieff in Strathearn, Scotland. The only traces now visible are an earth mound and some walls on rising ground which once formed an island where the abbey once stood.
Balmerino Abbey, or St Edward's Abbey, in Balmerino, Fife, Scotland, was a Cistercian monastic community which has been ruinous since the 16th century.
The Abbot of Holyrood was the head of the Augustinian monastic community of Holyrood Abbey, now in Edinburgh. The long history of the abbey came to a formal end in July 1606 when the parliament of Scotland turned the abbey into a secular lordship for the last commendator, John Bothwell. The following is a list of abbots and commendators:
The Islands of the Forth are a group of small islands located in the Firth of Forth and in the estuary of the River Forth on the east coast of Scotland. Most of the group lie in the open waters of the firth, between the Lothians and Fife, with the majority to the east of the city of Edinburgh. Two islands lie further west in the river estuary.
Radulf was a 13th-century Scoto-Norman Cistercian monk and abbot. Most details about Radulf's career and all details about his early life are not known. His earliest certain occurrence in history is his appearance as Abbot of Kinloss in a Melrose charter datable to between 1202 and 1207. It is not known for certain when he became abbot of Kinloss Abbey, but the last known abbot of Kinloss, also called Radulf, left Kinloss in 1194 to become abbot of Melrose, putting Radulf II's succession somewhere between 1194 and 1207. Written in the margins next to Radulf's obituary is the assertion that he was the 4th Abbot of Kinloss, and if these are accurate, Radulf II would have succeeded not long after Radulf I's departure to Melrose Abbey in 1194.
Jonathan was a churchman and prelate active in late twelfth- and early thirteenth century Strathearn, in the Kingdom of Scotland. He was the Bishop of Dunblane during the time of Gille Brigte of Strathearn, and it was during Jonathan's episcopate that Gille Brigte founded an Augustinian priory at Inchaffray.
The Chronica Gentis Scotorum or Chronicles of the Scottish People was the first substantial work of Scottish history. It was written by John of Fordun, a priest of the diocese of St. Andrews and chaplain of the church of Aberdeen. Before his death, he had finished the first five books down to the reign of David I (1124–53) and had arranged his remaining materials, the last of which was dated 1385.
James Haldenston or James Haldenstoun was an Augustinian churchman from 15th-century Scotland. Probably from somewhere in eastern Fife, Haldenston became an Augustinian at St Andrews, earned several degrees on the continent, and became prior of May before becoming prior of St Andrews, head of the wealthiest and most important religious house in Scotland.
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