Coldingham Priory was founded on 21st June 1098.
Coldingham Priory was a house of Benedictine monks. It lies on the south-east coast of Scotland, in the village of Coldingham, Berwickshire. Coldingham Priory was founded in the reign of David I of Scotland, although his older brother and predecessor King Edgar of Scotland had granted the land of Coldingham to the Church of Durham in 1098 so he gets the official credit for founding it and a church was constructed by him and presented in 1100.
The first prior of Coldingham is on record by the year 1147, although it is likely that the foundation was much earlier. The earlier Columban Abbey founded by St. Æbbe sometime circa 640 AD. Although the monastery was largely destroyed by Oliver Cromwell in 1648, there are still extant remains of the priory. The choir of which forms the present parish church of Coldingham, and is serviced by the Church of Scotland. The model shows how extensive the abbey was in Medieval times, although for me it lacks the grandiose that the border abbeys at Dryburgh, Melrose and Kelso have.
Having said that I the reconstruction doesn’t do it justice, as you can see in the ruinous 18th century drawing they have not incorporated the tower in the model, a shocking omission in my opinion.
The choir is a substantial rectangular building with a fine interior, now used as the parish church. The nave was a massive building with aisles and filled much of what is now the graveyard but is mostly gone, and there was a large tower, rising to 90 foot over the crossing. Some of the domestic buildings are very ruinous but have been cleared and landscaped, and carved fragments and gravestones are on display as well as a transept arch.
As with all the border towns an abbeys it had a turbulent history, the priory was sacked in 1216, 1419 and 1542 by the English, besieged by the Scots in 1544, then attacked again by the English. Mary, Queen of Scots, stayed here in 1566. An ‘abbey place’ is mentioned in 1621, presumably a residence in the priory, but much of the building was damaged by Cromwell’s forces in 1648 (or 1650) after a two-day siege with cannon. The large central tower collapsed in the middle of the 18th century.
The lands of the priory had gone to the Homes after the Reformation, then to the Stewarts, then later to the Homes again, while the choir of the priory was (and is) used as the parish church (Priory Church).
The grand tower collapsed in 1770, apparently revealing the cadaver of a lady who had been sealed up in the walls, and the remains of the church were renovated in the 1850s and 1950s. There are many interesting memorials in the extensive graveyard and pleasant walks around the scenic village. There is a fine beach at Coldingham Bay.
I don't think you get the sheer scale of the Priory until you see something like Andrew Sparatts mock up gif of how it could have looked, as in the animation.
There’s a great timeline of the abbey here
https://www.coldinghamparish.co.uk/.../COLDINGHAM-PRIORY...
