For a stop at Melrose Abbey, officially the best abbey I've seen in Britain.
FORGET ENGLISH ABBEYS, Y'ALL.
MELROSE IS WHERE IT'S AT.
Completed 1146.
And in the most amazing setting.
The ever-wise Charlotte Brontë wrote:
"And as to Melrose... the very name [possesses] music and magic."
A walk in and about Melrose Abbey...
And a photograph for every angle.
Red sandstone colours so beautiful.
A forgotten side chapel.
Fugit hora {time flies}.
But you're the pilot.
Love this tracery.
Enter the empty choir through the pulpitum {choir screen}.
Hey Zeus boss.
East End.
Ceilings ripped open.
Tracery to die for.
Look north for red.
Look across to the south side.
There you find this interesting doorway with inscriptions.
On the lintel reads "Be halde to ye hende" in gorgeous Gothic script.
{This means "keep in mind, the end, your salvation"
and has become the motto of the town of Melrose.}
Inscriptions also refer to John Morrow, French-born master mason.
This panel, a reproduction of an original, identifies him.
The doorway leads to a red spiral staircase.
Climb and emerge next to gargoyles.
The view from the top is incredible.
Mom below.
Back to earth and an eerie aisle.
Exit through the south portal, with its destroyed niche figures.
South side.
Here you find interesting graves and architectural elements.
A slightly defaced, but very fine sculpture of the
Virgin and Child in 14th-c. International Gothic style.
A sundial.
Melrose's most famous gargoyle, the bagpipe-playing pig !
Graveyard time.
Weathered sandstone.
Also Elizabeth.
From the east side.
And the north.
Layers of tracery.
From the former chapter house.
Niches.
Near here you will find where the heart of
Rrrrrroberrrrrrrrrrrrt the Brrrrrrruuuuuuuce
is "buried."
{Yes I watched Braveheart after this.}
A quick stop in town, mountains in the distance.
I wish we had had more time in Melrose,
but it was on to The Border in the "Wee Red Bus."
Be halde to ye hende.
xx
MELROSE IS WHERE IT'S AT.
Completed 1146.
And in the most amazing setting.
The ever-wise Charlotte Brontë wrote:
"And as to Melrose... the very name [possesses] music and magic."
A walk in and about Melrose Abbey...
And a photograph for every angle.
Red sandstone colours so beautiful.
A forgotten side chapel.
Fugit hora {time flies}.
But you're the pilot.
Love this tracery.
Enter the empty choir through the pulpitum {choir screen}.
Hey Zeus boss.
East End.
Ceilings ripped open.
Tracery to die for.
Look north for red.
The remainder of a staircase which the monks would use to come from their chambers to mass in the mornings. At the bottom is either a washbasin or holy water receptacle, I cannot remember which.
Look across to the south side.
There you find this interesting doorway with inscriptions.
On the lintel reads "Be halde to ye hende" in gorgeous Gothic script.
{This means "keep in mind, the end, your salvation"
and has become the motto of the town of Melrose.}
Inscriptions also refer to John Morrow, French-born master mason.
This panel, a reproduction of an original, identifies him.
The doorway leads to a red spiral staircase.
Climb and emerge next to gargoyles.
The view from the top is incredible.
Mom below.
Back to earth and an eerie aisle.
Exit through the south portal, with its destroyed niche figures.
South side.
Here you find interesting graves and architectural elements.
A slightly defaced, but very fine sculpture of the
Virgin and Child in 14th-c. International Gothic style.
A sundial.
Melrose's most famous gargoyle, the bagpipe-playing pig !
Graveyard time.
Weathered sandstone.
Also Elizabeth.
From the east side.
And the north.
Layers of tracery.
From the former chapter house.
Niches.
Near here you will find where the heart of
Rrrrrroberrrrrrrrrrrrt the Brrrrrrruuuuuuuce
is "buried."
His body was buried in Dunfermline Abbey in 1329, but he wished for his heart to be cut from his body and carried on Crusade before being buried at Melrose. It was placed in a silver casket and worn as a necklace by his friend Sir James Douglas {"The Black Douglas"}, who also never made it on Crusade, and was killed in battle. The heart was then said to have been buried at Melrose, but was thought to be legend for many years.
In the 19th century, renovations to Dunfermline Abbey uncovered a royal tomb. Inside the tomb was the skeleton of a man shrouded in gold, wearing a crown, and with his chest broken open--to remove the heart. Then, in the 1990s, archaeologists found a lead casket holding a human heart at Melrose, which tested as contemporary with Robert the Bruce. It was reburied in the abbey grounds, although it is said that its actual location is not where this memorial is placed--and that there are only six people alive who know the true burial site of the heart at Melrose...
Lands, titles, men, power, nothing.
In the 19th century, renovations to Dunfermline Abbey uncovered a royal tomb. Inside the tomb was the skeleton of a man shrouded in gold, wearing a crown, and with his chest broken open--to remove the heart. Then, in the 1990s, archaeologists found a lead casket holding a human heart at Melrose, which tested as contemporary with Robert the Bruce. It was reburied in the abbey grounds, although it is said that its actual location is not where this memorial is placed--and that there are only six people alive who know the true burial site of the heart at Melrose...
Lands, titles, men, power, nothing.
{Yes I watched Braveheart after this.}
A quick stop in town, mountains in the distance.
I wish we had had more time in Melrose,
but it was on to The Border in the "Wee Red Bus."
Be halde to ye hende.
xx
Pretty awesome!
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