{"id":492572,"date":"2025-10-12T03:20:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T03:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/492572\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T03:20:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T03:20:46","slug":"this-now-ruined-abbey-was-once-scotlands-centre-of-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/492572\/","title":{"rendered":"This now ruined abbey was once Scotland’s centre of power"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n However, its time in the limelight would come to a sudden and violent end during the Scottish Reformation.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Most of what survived from this episode was the nave, which was spared by the Protestants so that it could serve as the parish church of Canongate.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Before this upheaval, the Stewart monarchs are said to have \u201calmost entirely\u201d taken over the canons\u2019 cloister.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n The abbey’s time in the limelight would come to an end during the Scottish Reformation(Image: Getty Images\/iStockphoto)\n<\/p>\n

The ruined abbey in the heart of Edinburgh that was once the epicentre of power in Scotland<\/p>\n

\n Discussing why the Scottish<\/a> abbey was so important to the Stewarts, senior cultural significance adviser at Historic Environment<\/a> Scotland, Nicki Scott, said: “I think as much as anything, it’s location, obviously it’s basically just down the road from Edinburgh Castle, which was then, as it is now, the iconic castle for Scottish kings.”\n<\/p>\n

\n This closeness was said to provide a high degree of security, while allowing royals to “live a much more luxurious life” away from the confines of the fortress.\n<\/p>\n

\n While royals may have made the move away from the famous keep to distance themselves from its military reputation, Edinburgh Castle was, by no means, a “dark, dreary and damp” place to live.\n<\/p>\n

\n It was just that the abbey<\/a> was easier to expand and maintain as it did not sit atop a rocky outcrop.\n<\/p>\n

\n In 1687, years after much of the site was destroyed during the Reformation, James VII of Scotland<\/a> and II of England made the decision to evict the nave\u2019s Protestant congregation.\u00a0He then restored the site as a chapel under his revived Order of the Thistle.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n However, this would not last, with the chapel being ransacked and James forced into exile within a year.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Despite these events having a massive impact on the monument, Nicky Scott explains that there was not one single “catastrophic” event that turned the site into a wreck, with earlier English invasions in the 1540s, neglect over the centuries and the rise of the idea of “romantic ruins” playing a part.\n<\/p>\n

\n As has been the case with other monuments around the globe, much of the structure was also nicked by locals to build their homes.\n<\/p>\n

\n Scott added that this was the “sensible thing to do” at the time, but joked: “We, obviously, discourage that nowadays, people just turning up and taking bits.”\n<\/p>\n

\n The history of the abbey goes back much further than the reign of the Stewarts, with it having been founded by David I in 1128.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Nowadays, the cloister precinct is occupied by the modern Renaissance palace of Holyroodhouse. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n The abbey is also the burial ground for many Scottish royals, including, but not limited to, James V and King Henry, more widely known as Lord Darnley, the second husband of Mary Queen of Scots.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Recommended Reading:<\/p>\n

\n When asked if the abbey would be one of the grandest in Scotland if it had been allowed to survive, Nicki said: “Certainly, from what we have left of the architecture of the medieval abbey, it’s certainly amongst the most sophisticated that was produced.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Citing the “late, great” historian of medieval architecture and art, Richard Fawcett, she added that it could rival anything in England and certainly rivals anything built in Scotland.\n<\/p>\n

\n The site can sometimes be forgotten about by those visiting the Palace of Holyroodhouse, with Nicki urging people not to neglect this wonderful “haven in the city”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, its time in the limelight would come to a sudden and violent end during the Scottish Reformation.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-492572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115359048176650934","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}