Near Kirkudbright on the Scots side of the Solway Firth stands the ruins of
Dundrennan Abbey which I visited back in 2016 on a damp and dismal day making somewhat limited possibilities for
plein air sketching and had to rely on the camera built in to my mobile phone. The above image is of a grave slab now set upright and fixed to the wall.
Available on site information says this was an abbot as signified by the crozier and had been murdered/assassinated. There was no evidence to hand as to who this unfortunate monk was. It seems that Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury who was assassinated in 1170 was not the only churchman in history to come to an untimely end. So why was this particular fellow killed?
The life-sized stone carving struck me as a good subject for drawing. At the time I took the photograph I didn't notice the sword hilt at the figure's left breast but it became more obvious when I settled down to the drawing. That intrigued me. Clearly the effigy was made to show the manner of his death. However, I was unable to find out who he was let alone the circumstances. The Abbey functioned for some 400 years so he could have been from any time in that period. Perhaps some of you Scottish historians out there could throw a little light on this mystery. For example, how did the monasteries become ruined in the first place? Was this a result of the dissolution under Henry VIII? As this monastery and others such as Sweetheart and Melrose fell into disrepair, was it because of this English king and his secretary Thomas Cromwell, or was it because of other turmoil under the Scottish kings? I wonder.
This drawing was done in a Daler-Rowney sketchbook A4 sized on 150 gsm paper finished as pen and watercolour wash.
