Kelso Abbey
With the King and a huge chunk of
Scotland’s aristocracy and clergy lying dead on the field at Flodden, the Kerrs
took the opportunity to ride up to Kelso abbey the night after the disastrous
battle and Dand Kerr of Ferniehirst had his younger brother Thomas, or Tam as
he was known to his reiver friends, installed as Commendator, on the reckoning
that they were protecting it from any English follow-up attack.
Tam went on to become Abbot of the abbey in
1534, with the Cessford Kerrs eventually taking over after the murder of
William Kerr in 1556 on the orders of the Regent Moray.
The abbey is an impressive ruin near the
centre of modern Kelso today and is well worth a visit. There are also
partially ruined abbeys at nearby Jedburgh and Melrose, where the heart of Robert the Bruce
is buried.