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 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 woman and 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.