Moray McLaren
THE SHELL GUIDE TO SCOTLAND 1967
The Cistercians
of Sancta Maria Abbey in Nunraw
Gazetteer page 233
GARVALD, East Lothian (Map 3, ref. 35967'),
is a small intimate village of considerable architectural and natural charm lying
on the northern slopes of the Lammerrnuir Hills, and situated in a steep valley
on the Papana Water. The church dates partly from the 12th cent., and has a sundial
dated 1633, and also ancient jougs attached to the W. gable. The church, the cottages,
and the houses in the village are built of the attractive deep rose-coloured
East Lothian stone. Of recent years, however, Garvald has been associated with a
new venture, the roots of which nonetheless lie locally and deeply in the past.
Just above the village to the E. stands
a 15th-cent. fortified mansion, restored in a typically Victorian style in 1864.
It was established originally by Cistercian
nuns. A magnificent painted ceiling dating from 1610 remains, part of which has
been removed to the National Museum of Antiquities in EDINBURGH.
The house now belongs once again to the Cistercian order, and the white-habited
Trappists came in 1946 to establish
their first monastery in Scotland since the Reformation. In 1952 on Easter
Monday, and 814 years after the Easter Monday when the Cistercians began the building of their first monastery in Scotland
at MELROSE, the first sod was cut,
and the
thirty-five-year task of building the Abbey of Sancta Maria begun. The
new Abbey, which is springing up fast, is just to the E. of the old house of
Nunraw. The Cistercians of Sancta Maria
Abbey in Nunraw sustain their order's custom of hospitality. They are
farmers as well as builders, have reclaimed waste moorland, and are well liked
in this predominantly Protestant farming district.
See
the Map references in The Shell Guide to Scotland to the.
Cistercian
Abbeys of Scotland
Deer, Cupar, Angus, Nunraw, Newbattle, Saddell,
Culross, Balmerino, Sweetheart, Glenluce, Dundrennan, Melrose, Kinloss.
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