Balmerino Abbey was founded by a woman who is believed to be buried here: Queen Ermengarde de Beaumont, not a “normal” woman by any standards.
The Abbey is in a bad state and there is not much left of its original power and impressive architecture, nothing but the faint memory of its people and their stories in a long gone past.
Ermengarde was born in 1170 and died in her early sixties, a long life in the 12th century.
She was married to King William I of Scotland at the age of 16. The marriage took place in England, Henry II was overlord of Scotland at the time. Her husband had been a notorious womaniser before his marriage but was said to have been faithful to his extraordinary wife ever since the marriage vows.
Her husband founded an Abbey in Arbroath where about 14 years later he was laid to rest.
Ermengarde, who survived her husband by 20 years, was not buried next to him, but here, in her Abbey, in Balmerino.
In late 1229 twelve monks from Melrose Abbey came to Balmerino. They came on foot, and they built the abbey. Here they lived, worked, and prayed, the grew crops, held sheep for wool and fished. They were Cistercians and believed in communal living, physical labour, and frugality. They even slept with their clothes on.
Their benefactress is said to have been laid to rest in front of the high altar.
Liked the read? There’s more here…
The stories of this book have been discovered and gathered for my blog, Graveyards of Scotland, over many years. Find treasure all over Scotland with my latest book. I am Nellie Merthe Erkenbach, journalist and author.The fairy hill in Inverness, a nitrate murder on Shetland, a family of left-handers, wolves, Robert the Bruce and William Wallace shown in a new light, the secret bay of the writer Gavin Maxwell, a murdering poet and so many things you didn’t know about Scotland, its clans and its history.
My main sources were historical travel guides from the 18th and 19th centuries, where the finds were scary, beautiful, funny, and sometimes, cruel.
This unusual approach to a country’s history has produced amazing results. You don’t have to share my passion for cemeteries to enjoy this book; only a small number of the stories in this collection take place in graveyards, though they do all end in them, so perhaps it helps.
Graveyards of Scotland 
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