Photography by John Ball - 11.30am, 9 March 1998 (with Agfa ePhoto307 digital camera)

A monastery was first erected on this site by a colony of French Savigniac monks around AD 1130. After the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s, parts of the abbey were transformed into a grand Tudor mansion. The buildings are now in various degrees of preservation, and many parts of the structure are still identifiable.

Image 1:

The Abbot's House, dating from about AD 1180 to 1250 but with later additions.

Image 2:

Ruins of the northeast wing, added in Tudor times onto the back of the Abbot's House.

Image 3, 4:

Parts of the entrance to the Monks' Day Room in the Abbot's House, built around AD 1200.

Image 5:

The remains of the great West Front of the Abbey Church.

Image 6:

The south wall of the Abbot's House, reflected in the still waters of the Tennent Canal.

Image 7:

Ahead are the remains of the north wall of the Abbey Church nave, and to the left, its west front.