Description

The monument consists of the Cistercian abbey of Glenluce built by Roland, Lord of Galloway, in 1191/2 on the river plain of the Water of Luce.

This rescheduling is necessary to restrict the extent of the area to the south included in the last scheduling, which contains modern agricultural buildings in active use at Back of the Wall Farm. Rescheduling is also necessary to include the grounds of Abbey House in the scheduling. Abbey House is not included as it is an occupied dwelling.

Like all Cistercian abbeys the setting is remote and tranquil and it is built with the plain austerity originally associated with the monastic ideals of Citeaux and its colonies. It was founded as a daughter house from Dundrennan, but little is known of its institutional history. The abbey was formally secularised in 1602.

The remains of the abbey church are slight, except for the S transept. The S wall of the S aisle is reduced to wall footings. The layout is standard: aisled nave, sizeable transepts (each with a pair of chapels) and a simple unaisled and square-ended presbytery. The surviving architectural detail echoes the link through Dundrennan with the great Yorkshire houses. The floor was tiled and there are notable monuments to the Hays and Gordons, rivals for the abbey's lands in the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries.

To the S of the church is the cloister surrounded by the domestic ranges in the standard Cistercian manner. The W range originally provided accommodation for the lay brothers. The E range was the domain of the monks, with their dormitory on the upper floor overlying vaulted offices on the ground-floor. Most of these lower chambers opened off the cloister walk. They included the sacristy (reached from the church) and a tiled slype or passage to the burial ground. The S half of the E range was rebuilt in the latter half of the 15th century, it includes the chapter house, which is now the abbey's chief claim to architectural distinction. Its interior is roofed with a four-compartment ribbed vault springing from a central shafted pier. Part of the original tile floor survives and the stone bench-seat for conventual meetings runs around the wall (although it is heavily restored). The Abbot's stall is at the centre of the E wall between a pair of traceried windows. The domestic offices were in the S range until adapted as a domestic dwelling in the 16th century. At the junction of the S and E ranges was the reredorter or latrine block. The water supply system is rare and possibly unique, surviving as it does with its jointed earthernware pipes and lidded junction boxes at the base of drainage channels. To the W are the footings of workshops.

The area to be scheduled includes the abbey buildings and burial ground, along with an area around which has been shown at other similar monuments to be within the precinct of the abbey and to contain additional buildings. It also includes the remains of the water supply system, including the site of St Katherine's Well to the E of the New Luce Road (NX15NE11). It measures a maximum of 440m N-S by 390m E-W and is marked in red on the accommpanying map. Specifically excluded from the scheduling is the section of the New Luce road which crosses the E of the area. Any active burial lairs are also excluded where rights of burial are extant. The above-ground drystone field dykes furthest to the W and S of the abbey are to be excluded. Abbey House is also to be excluded, along with the upper 40cm of the grounds of Abbey House.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation

Historic Environment Scotland Properties
Glenluce Abbey
https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/glenluce-abbey
Find out more

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/61214/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland