Lincluden Abbey

The History of lincluden abbey …as we know it

The Lost Chronicles of Gallovidia A Time Travellers Guide to Dumfries & Galloway The Lost Chronicles of Gallovidia is a series of interactive guidebooks that bring to life the Hidden Histories of Dumfries & Galloway. We invite you to join us on a quest to uncover the ancient heart of Gallovidia! A quest to discover the events, characters, places and spaces, that hold the hidden secrets of our past that lie on our doorsteps and beneath our feet. To join us on our quest, you must complete your preparations and induction by researching Lincluden Abbey/Collegiate Church with help from our Guidebook, and then working your way through the Activity Resource Pack. The Lost Chronicles of Lincluden Abbey is the first in our series of free downloadable Time Travellers Guidebooks & accompanying Activity Resource Packs targeted at time travelling history detectives... of all ages! These Covid-19 friendly self led family activities and adventures will help bring to life the glory days of Lincluden Abbey, (in as safe a manner as possible) as the Year 2020 has seen the world hit with a global pandemic so we must ensure your safety. Keep your distance from others, wear a mask & wash your hands after you've visited! You will be guided through these activities and experiences by our time travelling Wildlings O Galloway, some of the infamous characters who’s stories are associated with and grounded in the spaces and places around D&G. A' GALLOVIDIA! 1 An Introduction Lincluden Collegiate Church is situated beside a bend in the Cluden Water, near its junction with the River Nith, one mile North-West of central Dumfries. It comprises the standing remains of a Collegiate Church founded in 1389 by Archibald the Grim, 3rd Earl of Douglas, and built on the site of a Benedictine Nunnery founded in the 1160s by Uchtred, Lord of Galloway. Princess Margaret, the 4th Earl of Douglas’s widow, was buried here in 1450. Following the Protestant Reformation (1560) the church fell out of use, but the Provost’s residence was retained as a ‘mansion’, first for the Douglases of Drumlanrig and thereafter, the Maxwells of Caerlaverock. The complex was abandoned by 1700, and stone was taken to be used elsewhere. In 1882 the standing remains were “tidied up” by the Maxwells of Terregles, and in 1922 the church was entrusted into State care under a Guardianship Agreement. The standing remains comprise the Choir, South Transept and South Nave Aisle of the Church, and a range of domestic buildings (the ‘mansion’) to their north. The Church is a most remarkable piece of late medieval architecture, dating mainly from the first half of the 15th century, and most probably designed by the Frenchman, Jean Morow, whose handiwork is most associated with Melrose Abbey. To the east of the buildings lies a formal garden, dated 16th or 17th-century, incorporating what may be a 12th-century Motte on its south side. Local people use the surrounding area as a recreational space, and awareness of the property has increased in recent years, attracting more visitors from further afield. Lincluden Collegiate Church AKA Lincluden Abbey 2 Statement of Significance Lincluden Collegiate Church is one of Scotland’s most important late-medieval religious buildings because, although not on the scale of the grandest Abbeys or Cathedrals, it demonstrates equal levels of sophisticated architecture and ambition. • The Nunnery, although scarcely represented in the physical remains, provides a rich archaeological potential for the study of this imperfectly understood aspect of medieval monastic life in Scotland. • The Collegiate Church, although a relatively modest building, has some of the finest quality Gothic architecture in Scotland, putting it on a par with the great churches of the realm (e.g. Melrose Abbey and Paisley Abbey). Of special note are the monumental Wall Tomb, Sedilia and Piscina, Pulpitum and Sacristy Door. • The Collegiate Church is perhaps the best surviving tangible expression of the power, wealth and wide cultural contacts of Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas and Duke of Touraine, son of the infamous Archibald the Grim, 3rd Earl of Douglas. It seems most likely that it was he who invited the French-born master mason, John Morow, to embark on its construction. • The Domestic Range, albeit modified at a later date, is a rare survival in Scotland of the kind of domestic accommodation associated with a Collegiate Church. • The formal garden is a rare example in Scotland of a Renaissance garden layout. 3 Background Lincluden Abbey/Collegiate Church stands a bend in the Cluden Water, near its junction with the River Nith, around one mile North-West of central Dumfries. It comprises the well-preserved remains of the Collegiate Church founded in 1389 by Archibald the Grim, 3rd Earl of Douglas, and to the north of the church a range of domestic buildings, including a tower house, and a series of vaulted cellars, with evidence of access to the floor above these. These remains stand on the site of a Benedictine Nunnery founded in the 1160s by Uchtred, Lord of Galloway, son of Fergus, 1st Lord of Galloway, who is believed to have founded Dundrennan Abbey, Soulseat Abbey, St Mary's Isle Priory, and Whithorn Priory. The remains of the Collegiate Church comprise the Choir, South Transept and South Nave Aisle, and include some very notable early 15th-century architectural features, probably designed by the French master mason Jean Morow. Princess Margaret, the 4th Earl of Douglas’s widow, was buried here in 1450, her tomb occupying a prominent location in the Choir, reflecting her status as one of the most powerful women in Galloway. A formal garden of 16th or 17th-century date lies to the east of the surviving buildings, with a prominent circular feature possibly representing a 12th-Century Motte with later landscaping, on its South side. The formal garden was re-created by the Ministry of Works in 1938, after the restoration of the gardens at Edzell Castle. In 1999, the effigy of Princess Margaret was removed from its wall tomb to protect it from recurring vandalism. Lincluden Collegiate Church was ‘tidied up’ in the 1880s by the then owner, Captain Maxwell of Terregles. Excavation in the missing nave established that it was of four bays, and that the West door was round-headed and decorated with chevron ornament, indicating a 12th-century date. Captain Maxwell also excavated the site of the Cloister to the North of the Church, and found evidence for a second range, running North from the West end of the Church. He also discovered the stone effigy of Princess Margaret, which he reinstated in its (presumed) original position in the monumental tomb in the choir. After Lincluden passed into State care, further excavation works were carried out, most as part of masonry consolidation works, but also in association with the ‘restoration’ of the formal garden. Numerous artefacts were recovered, including medieval pottery fragments. No recent archaeological excavation has been undertaken, other than the occasional ‘watching brief’, however, the site’s archaeological potential must be rated as very high. For example, the burial-ground of the Nuns. and College staff should be on the South side of the Church. 4 Finally, there may well be potential for garden archaeology (not a developed practice in the 1930s) across the formal garden to the east, and investigation of the so-called ‘motte’ along its south side may answer the long-standing puzzle as to whether there was an earthwork and timber castle on the site prior to the founding of the Nunnery. Historic Value Lincluden Collegiate Church is one of Scotland’s most important late-medieval religious buildings, demonstrating the level of sophisticated architecture and ambition equal to that seen in the grandest of Abbeys and Cathedrals. Very little is known about the original Nunnery at Lincluden. The foundation of the house is attributed in a 15th-century source to Uchtred, Lord of Galloway, and was the first Nunnery in the area. A knoll to the South-East of the Church is generally identified as a medieval Motte, suggesting that Uchtred founded the Nunnery in the precinct of one of his castles, but, unfortunately the history of the site is very poorly documented. No reference appears to exist before 1296, when Prioress Eleanor joined the long procession of Scottish worthies who were required to submit to Edward I of England at Berwick-upon-Tweed. Nonetheless, the income of Lincluden were enough to support a community of around eight Nuns. The fundamental purpose of any medieval religious house was prayer - specifically, the Church and the associated Cloister buildings provided a home for a celibate community performing a daily cycle of religious worship, normally involving seven separate services of sung prayers and psalms spread through the day and night. Listen to our Lady Blanche (the last Lady Prioress of Lincluden Abbey) Podcast where she will tell you about what life in the Nunnery was like, and how it all came to a dramatic end. The most detailed source relating to the history of the Nunnery at Lincluden, however, asserts that by the late 14th century the Nunnery's purpose was no longer being fulfilled. In 1389, Clement VII issued a document which states that the Nunnery had come to be used as a military stronghold by local men in Border warfare against England, the cycle of formal religious services had declined to a single weekly mass, the Nuns had lost control of some of their income, and the Convent buildings had fallen into some disrepair, as had the reputations of the Nuns. Based on these rumours, the Pope directed that the Nunnery was to be converted into a Collegiate Church. The driving force behind this conversion was the new Lord of Galloway, Archibald, 3rd Earl of Douglas, who knew a Collegiate Church, would provide better income generation for him as the new Land Lord. Archibald was the son of the original “Black Douglas”; the “Good Sir James” who had been the comrade-in-arms of King Robert the Bruce, and the terror of the English in the First War of Independence. 5 The new “Collegiate”foundation at Lincluden was part of wider pattern of benefaction by Archibald the Grim. Much of this was focused near Dumfries. The Pope's communications of 1389 shows that the new community at Lincluden consisted of a Provost and eight Canons, but that the foundation was also merged with the Maison Dieu at Holywood, which was to draw on the income of Lincluden to support twenty-four “poor folks”. The rebuilding of the Church was begun promptly in 1389, but seems to have progressed slowly, with a document of 1403 suggesting that the building was still far from complete. Expert opinion regards a date in the first quarter of the 15th-century as more realistic for the main phase of construction, and accredits the work to Archibald the Grim’s daughter-in-law, Princess Margaret Stewart. Margaret was probably born between 1366 and 1373, the eldest child of the future King Robert III of Scotland, and his wife Annabella Drummond. Evidence shows that Princess Margaret played an important role in the diplomatic efforts of the early 15th-century, and one of the most powerful women ever in Galloway, where she actively and skillfully, ruled on her own, for 26 years, after her husbands death. One place where we can certainly see the Princess taking an active role is in the completion of her father-in-law’s religious foundation at Lincluden. Her tomb in the Choir is often thought to have been completed before 1424. However, the lack of any specific memorial for her husband suggests that the monument postdates his death and his burial in Tours Cathedral; France. After the deaths of her husband and her younger son, Princess Margaret responded by dedicating herself further to the Collegiate Church, establishing additional prayers for the souls of members of the family, and the “good estate” of her brother King James I. By this time, Margaret was in full control of Galloway, which she governed from the palace-like lodgings which then stood outside the great keep at Threave. From 1424 until 1450 the Princess was governing the region in her own right - and the likelihood is that during the final phase of construction on the Collegiate Church, and the completion of her tomb, she was in full control of the patronage of Lincluden, and the building project there. We see the Princess in her new role as a great feudal magnate in the charters she issued in the late 1420s to regulate local administrative arrangements, church endowments and baronial landholding in Galloway. These show her holding court in her palace at Threave in a style that seems positively regal - attended by her Bishop, her Chancellor and her Secretary, the Squires of her household, the Officials of the Sherrifdom of Wigtown, and Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, the Knights and Lairds who were her vassals, and the occasional lawyer. Further tragedy overtook the family before anyone else could inherit. The King was murdered in 1437, the 5th Earl died in 1439, and in 1440, his two teenage sons were abruptly arrested while attending a banquet in Edinburgh Castle, later known as the “Black Dinner”, and executed on the spot, by government ministers acting in the name of the Princess’s 10-year-old nephew, King James II. The Princess found her immediate family suddenly reduced and scattered. (The Black Dinner later became the inspiration for the now infamous Red Wedding in Game of Thrones) A sort of equilibrium was restored later by her husband’s younger brother, the obese “James the Gross”, who claimed the Douglas Earldom, and married his eldest son to Margaret’s elder granddaughter, to secure the Galloway and Bothwell inheritance. In June 1449, a continental chronicler may provide a glimpse of the Princess Margaret attending the wedding festivities of her nephew King James II, alongside her daughter the Countess of Orkney; she is last recorded in February 1450, when she finally handed over Galloway to her grandson-in-law, now the 8th Earl of Douglas; he or his brother promptly demolished her lodgings at Threave. and reworked the defences around the tower to carry a powerful battery of artillery. Margaret probably died later that year, aged over eighty. The often stated story that she died at Threave has no strong documetary evidence, but we know that she was laid to rest in the church at Lincluden. The fall of the Earls of Douglas saw the King assume the rights to the Lordship of Galloway, and with it the patronage of Lincluden Church / Abbey. The King power grabbed the Lordship in order to take control of the largely independent, and incredibly powerful kingdom that Galloway once was. 6 The tumultuous events of the civil war between James II and the sons of James the Gross. seem to have had strangely little effect on Lincluden Church. The pre-Reformation royal government did not interfere with religious foundations, and the church was after all the mausoleum of the King’s own aunt, so the community of Canons and Bedesmen continued to pray for the souls of the Black Douglas family, and the Provost, James Lindsay of Covington, remained in office. Princess Margaret was not the last powerful royal woman associated with Lincluden. In 1460, when Henry VI was deposed as king of England, his French Queen Margaret of Anjou, fled into Scotland and established her exiled court at Lincluden. Mary of Gueldres, now regent of Scotland on behalf of her infant son James III, travelled south to meet her, and the two Queens concluded a Scoto-Lancastrian alliance which shaped the course of the next phase of the Wars of the Roses. Two more Provosts rose to become Bishops, and although the benefice was now something of a stepping-stone for careers within the royal administration, they both paid enough attention to their role at Lincluden to make significant architectural additions to the Provost’s lodging adjacent to the Church. In the 1540s, the Provostship came back to a local branch of the Douglases, the lairds of Drumlanrig, while by the 1550s, the prominent local nobleman Lord Maxwell had acquired the position of bailie, or lay administrator of the regality. Both families retained their position through the troubles of the Reformation, with the Douglases of Drumlanrig apparently using the residential range as a private house, while the Maxwells maintained the church as a dynastic mausoleum. In the early 17th century, the Maxwells appear to have taken over the lodging as well, and while their adherence to the Catholic Church and the House of Stuart eventually led to Lincluden being plundered by their enemies and abandoning their presence probably prevented the buildings from suffering a more complete demolition at an earlier date. The complex was abandoned by 1700 and, following a period when it became a handy source of building stone, in 1882 limited conservation works were carried out by the Maxwells of Terregles. 7 Architectural Values The standing remains of the Collegiate Church at Lincluden represent the second church on the site, replacing that of Uchtred of Galloway’s 12th-century nunnery. Although constructed in a simpler style, the earlier Church established a basic floor plan which was later inherited by the new one. It had a short aisled Nave of four bays (the foundations of the northern nave arcade and aisle walls were uncovered in an early archaeological excavation in the 1880s) and a rectangular eastern Chapel entered through an archway. There were residential ranges on the northern side, possibly forming a quadrangle arranged around an arcaded cloister. The topography made the site reasonably defensible, and the mound just to the South-East of the Church may represent a 12th-century Motte, implying that the Church was founded within the precinct of an early castle of the Lords of Galloway. During the 14th century, Lincluden continued to be used as a military stronghold by Scots in warfare on the Border, and parts of the Nunnery were apparently allowed to fall into some disrepair. After the community was changed from a Priory of Nuns to a College in 1389, the Earls of Douglas embarked on a grand reconstruction of the Church. A document of 1406 indicates that work was begun by Archibald the Grim around 1390, soon after obtaining the Pope's permission to introduce the Canons, but work was still far from complete in the early 12th-century. The architectural focus on the tomb of his daughter-in-law, with no reference to her husband the 4th Earl, suggests that the completion of the building may have only occurred after his death and burial in France in 1424. Unusually, we know the Principal architect of the rebuilt Church at Lincluden - a French master mason known as John Morow (presumably Jean Moreau in his native language). Morow lists “Nithsdale” among his works in an autobiographical inscription at Melrose, and his hand can be recognised at Lincluden by comparing the architecture here with the style of his work elsewhere. Lincluden displays all the key features of John Morow’s distinctive architectural repertoire, including French-style curvilinear window tracery with few other parallels in Scotland and true rib vaulting rather than the disguised barrel-vaulting often employed in Scotland. 8 The layout of the Collegiate Church was determined by the pre-existing plan, with an aisled Nave of four bays, and an aisleless Eastern Chapel, but the architecture which survives today is almost entirely the work of the second period. The south aisle of the Nave was reconstructed, with a projecting chapel at the western end that functioned as a Transept, and the Eastern Chapel was almost entirely rebuilt; all three spaces were rib-vaulted. In origin, the roof of the Eastern Chapel may have risen higher and steeper than that of the Nave. The Nave of the Church has mostly been demolished, leaving only the south wall, the chancel arch to the east, and some foundations, but the aisled plan can still be envisaged relatively clearly. This would have served as the main congregational space of the church, accommodating the range of lay people who might attend the college’s services. How this space was furnished is unclear, and there is no direct evidence for the profusion of additional altars found in many Scottish churches in the late-medieval period. The one place in the nave where we can be sure that there was an altar is the south transept, which certainly contained a chapel, indicated by the piscina beneath the south window and the corbel for a statue of a saint on the east wall. Nineteenth-century sources claim that this was known as “Princess Margaret’s Aisle” or “Lady Margaret’s Chapel”. The chapel also contains the grave of Alexander Cairns, Provost of Lincluden and chancellor to the Princess’s husband, who seems to have died around 1422, and could conceivably be the successor of a Lady Chapel from the earlier nunnery church. The nave as a whole may have been a relatively open space, with only unencumbered architecture and the light entering through the large glazed windows of the south aisle. The unquestioned focus of the nave was the one part which remains intact - the chancel arch at the east end, connecting the congregational space with the eastern chapel beyond. In typical late medieval style, rather than providing an uninterrupted view, the lower part of the space was (and still is) screened from the nave by a stone wall with a central doorway, which in this case was surmounted towards the nave by an impressive sculptural display. Although weathered and damaged, the sculptures from the Lincluden screen provide an important insight into wider artistic & iconographic trends in Scotland before the Reformation. Beneath the parapet, the central archway may have been left open, allowing the laity in the nave to focus their attention on the altar, though by the 16th century, an archway like this would usually be closed off by a pair of doors - all of the handful of surviving Scottish examples have a balustraded upper section to provide a limited view of the altar. The blank sections of walling on either side may possibly have accommodated two additional altars. The doorway in the centre of the screen led inwards to the eastern chapel, the most sacred space in the church. In contrast to the western nave, which has four window bays, the chapel is only three bays long, aisleless but originally roofed by a high vaulted ceiling which may have overtopped the height of the nave. Within the chapel, the western bay would have been where the canons formed a choir to sing the psalms and prayers of the daily liturgy. 9 By around 1470, the space had been transformed by the insertion of a set of high-backed wooden choir stalls. A pair of these stalls survive, having been preserved for centuries by a local Catholic congregation. These are by some margin the earliest of the four sets of pre-Reformation choir stalls which survive from medieval Scotland, and certainly the only ones to incorporate painted decoration of this sort. Beyond the choir area, the doorway on the left leads to the vaulted sacristy. The sacristy doorway is set exactly half-way down the chapel, and thus serves to demarcate the canons’choir to the west from the eastern sanctuary where the priest performed the eucharistic liturgy. The ultimate spatial focus of the chapel was the altar beneath the east window. The three corbels in the wall show that this must have been a very table-like structure, supported by stone columns at the front. The plain area of walling above the altar indicates the presence of a substantial painted or carved altarpiece. Just as important as the altar was the tomb of the princess on the north side, positioned emphatically within the sanctuary. To the south side are two features typical of late-medieval church sanctuaries - the sedilia, a triple seat for the priest and his two assistants, and a piscina. There is also a display of heraldic shields, a feature which reflects wider patterns of aesthetic and iconography in medieval Scotland. The most prominent heraldic shields are in the row along the front of the tomb, but there are additional coats of arms above the door to the sacristy, beneath the lowest pilasters of the rib-vaulting which demarcates the eastern bay around the altar, and higher up as stops at either end of the raised hood-moulds which frame the arches of the windows. Further heraldic shields act as stops on the hood-moulds above the windows, and these continue externally. The meaning of this complex display of heraldry is not entirely clear, though the references are evident to the Douglas family and their close associates. To the north of the church lay accommodation ranges. There are traces of a quadrangle round a courtyard, evidently dating back to the period when Lincluden was a nunnery. The evidence from the east side suggests that the accommodation was at first floor level above vaulted cellars, which may have been fronted by a cloister arcade. Hints of a stair leading into the choir through the sacristy may indicate the position of the night stair, while excavations in the 1880s were interpreted as indicating a second route from the west range into the guest quarters into the north aisle of the nave. The preservation of the original north nave aisle and the survival of the basement of the west range suggest that this quadrangle was retained when the church was rebuilt. Above the vaulted twelfth-century basement rose two upper floors of accommodation, fronted by an impressive polygonal stair-turret which acted as the main entrance to the lodgings, and terminated at the north end by a tall rectangular tower. The stair-turret was intended as a visual centrepiece. The rebuilding of the provost’s lodging appears to have been conceived as a single architectural project - the tower seems to be structurally all of a piece with the adjacent chambers in the main range. As to the date of the reconstruction, the gunloops and the style of the iron-barred windows suggest a date in the 16th century. 10 To the east of the lodgings is a stepped geometric garden, a square space with a raised pathway around the edge and a polygonal central knoll, resembling the larger “King’s Knot” or “Round Table” at Stirling Castle. Beyond that, the old castle motte has been modified with a spiral pathway leading to the top, where a circular turf bank allowed visitors to sit around the top and admire the view. The gardens had fallen into some disrepair by the time they were first documented in the 1770s. Landscape & Aesthetic Values The picturesque setting of Lincluden Collegiate Church within a green winding in the tree-fringed Cluden Water, was clearly recognised by Robert Burns, who was a regular visitor and used the place to inspire his work (e.g. The Minstrel at Lincluden). This setting was compromised after World War II when the Lincluden area was developed for much-needed housing, which is particularly conspicuous from the southern side of the site. The beauty of the ruin has however been noted, with the church itself described as possessing ‘a delicacy and richness of detail unsurpassed by any of the churches of the decorated period in Scotland’ (RCAHMS). On the outside, the elegant curves of traceried windows punctuate the smooth red sandstone walls, whilst high quality sculptural work and decoration abounds internally, as testimony to the power, wealth and spirituality of the mighty Black Douglases. 11 Major Gaps in Knowledge The major questions that still need answered re Lincluden Abbey / Collegiate Church: • Is the mound on the South side of the formal garden a Motte? The origin and function of the feature is currently unknown, but if it does relate to a 12th-century castle, it would be challenging to identify its builder. • What was the layout of the Nunnery and College, and how did it change over time? • What was the history of the Nunnery and College? The lack of a cartulary (medieval manuscripts for the Nunnery), and the dearth of material available for the latter, makes a more exhaustive survey of associated documentary sources long overdue. • How was the complex used after the demise of the college at the Reformation? Was there ever a North range? • A better understanding of the original garden and the basis for the restoration by the Ministry would allow a better assessment of the values of this aspect of the site.