Situated near the border, the tranquil and scenic ruins of the Jedburgh Abbey bely the turbulent history it endured during the many wars with England .
Detail of Rose window
The abbey was founded in 1138 by King David I and Bishop John of Glasgow , the site of Jedburgh was ideal through its connections with Christianity dating back to the ninth century when a former church was established by the Bishop of Lindisfarne. The monks came from the Augustinian order at St Quentin Abbey at Beauvais and the 'black canons' as they were known by the colour of their habits became important political figures, frequently found at the royal court. The King and the Bishop were both keen on modernising the church and governance of Scotland in the way the Normans did in England and the monks provided spiritual guidance and an effective civil service for the royal court.
For the first 150 years Jedburgh Abbey saw peace and prosperity receiving generous endowments both north of the border, a popular spiritual insurance policy for the nobility. However Jedburgh's tranquility would be shattered by the Wars of Independence with England that saw the Scottish Borders ravaged. The Abbey sided with the English through much of the conflict and its abbot and canons were exiled to Yorkshire. Major works were undertaken following this but the Abbey would again suffer at the hands of the English, when Henry VIII invaded during the 'rough wooing' of the 1540s. By the time of the Reformation twenty years later, there were few canons left to resist the new church.
Jedburgh abbey Exterior
Today the church is virtually intact, minus the roof, but little remains of the once expansive lodgings of the abbey complex, which would have included a water powered mill. The ruins show what a magnificent building Jedburgh Abbey must have been with its three storeys of Romanesque arches lining the nave and include the 12th Century tomb of Bishop John of Glasgow. The excellent visitor centre houses some fabulous collections of 8th to 10th Century stone carvings, while visual displays illustrates the life of the Augustinian Canons and how the Jedburgh Abbey would have looked in its hey day in the 1510.
