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CASTLES
TOWNS
ABBEYS
VILLAGES
INVASIONS
CATHEDRALS
PALACES
BATTLES
WHISKY
CITIES
CHURCHES
REBELLIONS
GOLF
CLUBS
STATELY HOMES |
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With more than 900 entries in alphabetical order,
The Historical Handbook To Scotland provides a factual overview of the country's
historical landscape from the Roman occupation to the present
day. Integrated among its largest cities and smallest
villages, that number more than 260
locations, are some 500
historical buildings. These range from the most
strategically defended castles to the more venerable ruined
abbeys that stand as testaments to the struggles and strife of
the nation, during which many of the structures were designed
and doctrines upheld. Between these are the 90 battles and periods of
conflict. The comparatively modern history of more than
100 distilleries and golf
clubs serves to reflect the industrialisation and
urbanisation of 19th and 20th century Scotland, and like most
of the other entries, start with the subject name, region,
location and earliest history, eventually ending with a modern day summary that the reader
can experience first-hand. |
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housed it with Cistercian
monks from Rievulxe in Yorkshire, 1136. Formerly called Fordel after
the place, its Norman styled church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary
and consecrated in 1146, had an adjacent dormitory and oratory.
Possessing considerable portions of land in many parts of Scotland
and England, the Abbey's destruction in the crossfire of Anglo-Scottish
politics led to a distinguished breed of abbots who built and rebuilt
it over centuries. Such was their political/financial status that
in 1222-24 Henry III granted Abbot Adam's men safe conduct through
his domains with their revenue and it was at this time that the
Abbey was developed further. With the Wars of Independence came
the political vagaries and the wanton destruction, when the Abbey
was burnt and the Abbot petitioned Edward I in 1307 for timber for
rebuilding work. Attacked again in 1322 by the troops of Edward
II when its Abbot William Peebles and some monks were slain, provoking
Robert the Bruce to grant £2,000 for its rebuilding. Though exempt
from military service, the monks were often engaged in the cause
of the Stewarts from the time of Robert I, whose heart was finally
buried here after a failed attempt by Sir James Douglas to take
it to the Holy Land in 1330. In 1385 the retreating Richard II stayed
here for a night before burning it in the morning prior to despoiling
Newbattle and Dryburgh Abbeys. Its ongoing royal connections meant
its Abbot Andrew Hunter was the confessor of James II, and Lord
High Treasurer, 1449-53 and Ambassador to France, 1488. Of the Abbey's
former grandeur Sir Walter Scott was moved to write:
And far beneath, in lustre wan,
Old Melrose'
rose and fair Tweed ran:
Like some tall rock with lichens
grey,
Seemed dimly huge, the dark abbey.
When Hawick he
passed, had curfew rung,
Now midnight lauds were in Melrose
sung.
In the 16th century the administration and
revenues were invested with the Crown but the Abbey failed to
recover after the attacks by Brian Latoun, 1544, Earl of Hertford,
1545, and was held by the Lords of the Congregation in 1558. Later
passing through the Stuarts, Douglases, Ramsays, and the Scotts of
Buccleuch whose descendant funded repair work which was overseen by
Walter Scott in 1822. The parts of the church still standing are of
the mainly 15th century structure built on 12th and 13th century
foundations. Its richly embellished sculpting was indicative of the
Decorative period and of the Abbey's wealth. Today's ruins include
the distinctive vaulted nave with part of its north aisle, chapels
and a considerable part of the south aisle with its eight arcaded
chapels, a branch of the north and south transepts, with nearby
choir with two chapel bays, from which extends the altar and the
large east window. Of its domestic buildings the Chapter House is
the most entire.
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HIGHLAND
The Castle is isolated on the N side of Loch Sunart NE of Tobermory.
With rocks on it south side which gave access to and from ships
and a ditch on its north side, the structure takes the form of
an irregular hexagon and has occupied this strategic position
at the mouth of Loch Sunart since the 13th century. For a long
time the stronghold of the Macians, who were descended from the
Lords of the Isles. As the most south westerly bastion of the
Macian territory, and the bulwark against incursions by the Macleans
of Morvern and Mull, it figured in Sir Walter Scott's 'The Lord
of the Isles':
From Hirt that hears their northern roar,
To the green Ilay's fertile shore:
Or mainland turn, where many a tower
Owns thy bold brother's feudal power,
Each on its own dark cape reclined,
And listening to its own wild wind,
From where Mingarry, sternly placed
O'er awes the woodland and the waste
It was occupied by James IV in 1493 and 1495 during his successful
expedition to subdue the Western Isles. Partly demolished in 1517
by a Knight of Lochalsh, and during a siege by the Macleans in
1588, when its occupants were eventually saved by the arrival
of Government forces. In 1644 it was occupied by Alastair Macdonald
(Colkitoo) and used as a prison for Covenanters. Although it was
added to in the 18th century it soon became a ruin.
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