How would Thetford Priory have looked?

Thetford Priory was, of course, a Cluniac Priory. Whilst some walls stand away from the entrance, in other areas only the foundations remain and the Mowbray tomb locations are no longer marked, although those of the Howards, moved to Framlingham, remain.

If only, I hear you say, some kind of restoration could take place. That would be extremely expensive but there is a comparable building, although it suffered less dilapidation in the first place. Paisley Abbey was also a Cluniac priory and constructed in the twelfth century, although it had to be rebuilt in 1307 after an Edward I visit. Just nine years after that, on March 2nd, Marjorie Bruce, the king’s daughter married to Walter the Steward, fell off her horse nearby, whilst heavily pregnant. Although she died, her son was born alive and survived to 74, eventually succeeding his uncle as Robert II, the first Stewart King and progenitor of the Scottish nobility.

Paisley Abbey, arguably the Strathclyde region’s greatest historic attraction, is known as the “Cradle of the Royal House of Stewart” – literally, in fact. It is now a Church of Scotland church and has appeared on Songs of Praise in recent years, whilst the restoration continues. Robert II is among those buried there, with many of his family.

The Inspirational Borders and Lothians

After a very smooth journey, I started with a hotel overlooking the Tweed, on the site of a 1526 rebellion that even I hadn’t heard of.

 

Then I added a legendary rugby club ten minutes’ walk away, fitting an all-weather pitch for Kelso’s visit that Saturday, and an Abbey, formerly the home of Robert I’s heart just five more minutes away. A new station, (Tweedbank, which links to Waverley) is just half a mile in the opposite direction to the town.

Indeed, on the very day that I visited the Abbey, a repeat of Oliver’s ‘A History of Scotland’ showed him there. I did miss out on a vist to Peebles.

The first full day featured a morning in Leith, the birthplace of Ronald Balfour Corbett (whose middle name was NOT Goliath, as he often claimed), and an afternoon in Edinburgh’s city centre. The Leith coast features a modern shopping centre called Ocean Terminal, with everything you would expect, save that the second floor includes a walkway to the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was decommissioned without replacement in 1997. Four levels of this are accessible with the royal quarters, officers’ rooms and ratings’ bunks, catering, engineering, communication and medical facilities.

In the afternoon, at the northern extremity of Richard III’s world, I didn’t have time for St. Giles’ Cathedral and Holyrood Palace but I passed the (Sir Walter) Scott Memorial, the (David) Hume statue and Waverley Station (on North Bridge from Princes Street) and headed up the cobbles of the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle.

Here, I chose to spend my time visiting the guns (accidents didn’t only happen in 1460), the Crown Jewels (the Honours of Scotland, where photography is heavily restricted) and St Margaret’s Chapel, named after the exiled Princess of Wessex, who became Queen of Scotland to Malcolm III and ancestress of every Scottish monarch since 1093 save one (Donald Bain) and every English monarch since 1154 thanks to her daughter’s marriage to Henry I. Sadly, someone was taken ill in the Chapel just before I arrived so it was closed for a while.

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Floors Castle, near Kelso, the home of the (Innes-Ker) Dukes of Roxburghe, has the foundations of Roxburgh Castle and the James II Holly (ilex aquiflorum), marking his place of death at the siege, in its grounds. It has fascinated me for forty years and I have planned to visit it for ten but the untimely death of the 10th Duke floored my plans. We officially visited Thirlstane Castle, home of the (Maitland) Earls of Lauderdale on the third morning and it was fascinating in its own way, with some Jacobite genealogy on the walls in both text and pictorial form.

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The lower storeys are open to the public as the family – Captain Maitland-Carew at present – live in a wing but the towers are inaccessible.

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This was followed by an afternoon in Jedburgh, yet another of the little Borders towns, home of another great Borders Abbey and the Mary Queen of Scots’ House, a slim three-storey building with spiral stairs throughout, serving as a Leicester-style visitors’ centre for her 1566 stay. On our return from Jedburgh, we passed the Haig estate, where the future General was brought up among the whisky distillery, and Scott’s View, overlooking the ubiquitous Tweed and Melrose itself.

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