Pre-history
Persons from the 7th Century
Persons from the Middle Ages
Some lesser mortals from the Middle Ages
Prior
Thomas de Melsonby
Local Rhyme
Booklets
The rhyme - St Abb - St Helen - St Bey
St Abb's upon the nabs
Ebba lived
in the 7th C, and was a sister of the King of Northumbria, Oswy (642-670),
and so by inference also a sister of King Oswald (634-642). It is thought
that shortly after the death of Oswald in battle, Ebba withdrew and became
the Abbess of a new double monastery within Colud's Fort. It is a mistake
to picture
the monastic life at these times to be strict. Life in a lord's hall was
probably nearer the mark. These people were first generation Christians.
Ebba's new life did not reduce her ability to influence decisions made
by the king. Shortly after her death, the monastery was accidentally burnt
down about 683. This was thought to have been the result of God's wrath
as the monks and nuns had led particularly immoral lives. The monastery
was not rebuilt.
As time has
past, the position of the monastery has become obscure and the ordnance
survey has made the matter worse. However by reading contemporary accounts
of the monastery, by noting local names for features, and by a small amount
of archaeological work, they all put the monastery on the top of the
Brugh (Kirk Hill).
(The remains near the end of the Nunnery Point turn out to be medieval with a mortared fireplace and the rest dry stone walling. This suggests to the author that perhaps this had been a smoke house for curing sea birds. On a pre 1900 estate map in Eyemouth museum a 'downie house' is shown on the landward side of the ditch across the Point. This supports the hypothesis.)
Returning to the top of the Brugh, the collapsed wall along the rim of the landward side has been dated with the aid of radioactive measurements to about the time of Ebba's monastery. In 1188, the monks of St Cuthbert from Coldingham Priory built a small oratory on the top of the Brugh, dedicating it to the Lord and St Ebba, and it was maintained for several centuries, probably up to the 16th C. It is most likely that its foundations are those seen today within the outline of a collapsed boundary. Here is the "St Abb's Kirk".
Below the site of the oratory there is a long finger of rock pointing out to sea, known as Waimie Carr, (Belly rock). It was the serpent that was cast out of the Garden of Eden and made for ever to crawl on its belly. The colubrine (serpent-like) nature of this rock may in pre-Christian times have been taken as the residence of a spirit possibly connected with the state of the sea here. This puts St Abb's Head in the same league as the Lizard in Cornwall and Worm Head in the Gower Peninsula.