- Location: Abbey Street, Arbroath, DD11 1EG
- Access: No parking at the Abbey, parking in town. Some charges may apply.
- Opening times: 1 April – 30 September 10am – 5pm, 1 October – 31 March 10am – 4pm. Closed for lunch 12.30 – 1.30pm.
- Entry: Adults £4.75, concession £3.75, child £2.75, family £13.75
“As long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours, that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.”
These words will be known to anyone with even the slightest interest in Scottish history. They comprise the best-known sentences from one of the most famous letters ever written, the Declaration of Arbroath, written in 1320 by Scottish noblemen and sent to Pope John XXII, asking him to recognise Scotland as an independent nation and Robert the Bruce as its lawful king. It is named the Declaration of Arbroath as it was composed at Arbroath Abbey, probably under the direction of Bernard of Kilwinning, Abbot of the abbey, and a key ally of the king. The noblemen then approved the missive by adding their seals, rather than their signatures; only nineteen of the original fifty or so survive to this day. The abbey’s visitor centre has an excellent exhibition describing the Wars of Independence and the background to the Declaration of Arbroath.
Robert the Bruce was not the first king to be associated with the abbey, as it was founded in 1178 by William I, who also introduced the red lion rampant banner that remains a symbol of Scotland. William dedicated the abbey to his friend Thomas Beckett – the abbey’s seal depicts his murder eight years earlier – and entrusted it to the Tironesian order of monks. William did not live to see the abbey completed as he died in 1214, but there was enough done for him to be buried before the high alter, where his grave can still be seen.
Like most abbeys in Britain, Arbroath Abbey fell into ruin in the aftermath of the Reformation, its once proud red sandstone walls now seen as little more than a source of building material, and by the late 1600s it didn’t look too dissimilar to how it does today. But it is still a magnificent ruin, the south transept gable with its distinctive circular window, the gatehouse, and the largely intact abbot’s house all particularly striking.
Destination or Diversion?
Although it only takes a couple of hours to do the abbey and its visitor centre, its historical importance makes it a destination worth seeking out, especially when combined with a visit to Arbroath harbour, which was originally built and maintained by the monks, and David Annand’s impressive statue of Bruce and Abbot Bernard holding aloft the Declaration at the town’s southern entrance.
