14 October 2008

From Hadrian's Wall to the Isle of Ewe

Sep/Octoberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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Tuesday, 14 October 2008 I linger a bit in Isle of Whithorn this morning, strolling out onto the pier to look over the harbor. Reluctantly, I take my leave, feeling I haven't really appreciated my short stay there. Drive up the western shore of the Machars and visit Glenluce Abbey, another daughter of Cistercian Dundrennan. I've learned that most abbeys, and particularly the Cistercian ones, are laid out to a very specific plan, and so they do really all look the same, to some extent. Each one has its own unique features, though. Glenluce has a system of clay pipes delivering water from a nearby hillside spring. This is apparently the only such in the UK; all the other abbeys have wells.

Up the west coast, just short of Maybole, is Crossraguel Abbey, a Cluniac house. The Cluniacs were a link in the chain of reform between the Benedictines and the Cistercians. Crossraguel has retained a good deal of its stonework, owing in part to the fact that its last abbot, at the time of the Dissolution, made a successful transition to laird, and kept the abbey grounds as part of his estate. I wonder whether that's what Henry VIII had in mind. There is a 16th-century gatehouse, entirely intact, that affords a nice view over the ruins, giving the visitor an excellent grasp of the property's layout.

I drive north past Ayr and Irvine, and make a pass through the town of Kilwinning. There is another abbey here, a Tironensian daughter to Kelso, but I can't immediately spot it. Hell with it (figuratively speaking)...I'm about abbeyed out. [I'm sure the reader is just heartsick.] I've seen eighteen so far. No more until Aberdeenshire.

Catch the Gourock-Dunoon ferry just as it's unloading, just like last year. Make my way around the head of Loch Fyne into Inveraray, where I check into my B&B and spend the evening in the George Hotel, an oasis of fine food and drink.

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