OS1/13/33/8

Continued entries/extra info

8 Parish of Balmarino [Quotation continued]

...any light except when the stone which caused the opening at the top was removed. The ruins appear in many places to have undergone alterations during the lords Balmerino held the lands and part of them at least to have been connected with the house which formed their residence no part of which however except a piece of one of the walls now remains." etc. "It has often been remarked that the monks selected for their places of residence the finest situations in the country and certainly this observation holds true with regard to the abbey of Balmerino. The ruins stand at the opening of a fine valley upon the margin of the estuary of the Tay. The Scurr hill afforded them shelter from the cold North east winds and a small stream which runs through a narrow dell between the hill and the abbey added beauty to the scene. The surrounding grounds were highly cultivated and from the names which the fields yet retain had been laid out as gardens and orchards. Some few old chestnut trees still remain but time which has effected so much change upon the ruins has thinned the number of these trees and the fruit trees are now in a great measure removed. The place is still extremely beautiful and the ruins picturesque and interesting but when the pinnacles and towers of the church and other buildings of the monastery were entire and were seen amid the numerous trees which then surrounded them it must have been a scene of surpassing beauty. The view too which this spot commands of the Tay and its opposite coast the rich tract of the Carse of Gowrie the Sidlaw hills which form its northern boundary with the lofty Grampians rising in the distance forms a picture of great extent and pleasing variety." Leighton's Hist. [History] of Fife Vol. 2 pp 74. 75