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The history of Arbroath (or, to give it its old name,
Aberbrothock, meaning "at the mouth of the Brothock",
the stream which runs through the town) begins with the
building of its great Abbey.
Prior to that it would have been an ordinary coastal settlement
comprising rude shacks or huts scattered round
the natural break in the rocky shoreline which comprises
most of the coast in that area.
Arbroath lies some 14 miles to the south of Brechin, the
“Ancient City” - the Heartland of the Picts,
famous for its round tower (dating from the 10th century).
The surrounding countryside contains some of the finest
examples of early Christian/Pictish standing stones to be
seen in all Scotland.
King William the Lion founded the Abbey in 1178,
and, although not completed until 1233, the building was
sufficiently advanced to receive the remains of its Royal
founder King William when he died in 1214.
The Abbey as it may have looked when
first built
It was dedicated to his friend Thomas à
Becket, Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury,
who was murdered in 1170. The first monks (brought from
Kelso in the Scottish Borders) were of the Tironensian Order
who followed the Rule of St Benedict.
The Abbey continued to flourish until about 1500, after
which it fell into decline. By the 1560s (in the wake of
the Reformation) it had been stripped of its furnishings
and shortly thereafter became ruinous.
There are various accounts of its final destruction. One
tradition has it that there was a great conflagration, and
the molten lead poured from the roof down onto the streets.
However, it is more probable that the lead was stripped
from the roof to be cast into bullets for use in the civil
wars during the minority of King James VI.
In 1693, Slezer sketched the earliest known pictorial
record of the ruins for his “Theatrum Scotiae”. In
the engraving (seen below) great mounds of rubble are clearly
visible. Even by this time, the Abbey ruins had become a
convenient quarry for the local townspeople, and it is well
known that much of old Arbroath was built from the fallen
masonry. Grose, Pennant and Cardonnel (notable
early travellers) also made sketches of the ruins.
In 1772, the famous English diarist, Dr Samuel Johnson,
passed through the town, and noted: “The Monastery of
Aberbrothock is of great renown in the history of Scotland.
Its ruins afford ample testimony of its ancient magnificence.
I should scarcely have regretted my journey had it afforded
nothing more than a sight of Aberbrothock.”
In 1815, the remains were taken into care by the State
for preservation (now Historic Scotland), and there
they remain, to be seen (much as Slezer sketched them in
the late 17th century) by tourist and visitor alike.
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