Kelso - Abbey

The biggest and, at the end of the 12th century, the richest of the four Border abbeys was founded in 1128 by monks from Picardy, It shared the same fate as the other abbeys and was destroyed in the 16th century. Once again it was the Earl of Hertford who during the Reformation, at the behest of Henry VIII, burnt the town and abbey to the ground. The transept and, above all, the west tower, which is rather reminiscent of a castle keep, are the best-preserved sections of this late Norman sandstone construction.