page_title: Abbey St Bathans
section_title: History and Kirk
hierarchical_section_title: Abbey St Bathans / History and Kirk
caption_attribution_description: English: Edin's Hall Broch. Remains of an Iron Age fort near Abbey St. Bathans. View to the south west of the entrance. English: de Edin Salón Broch. Los restos de la Edad de Hierro fortaleza cerca de la Abadía de San Bathans años. Vista hacia el oeste al sur de la entrada. Français&#160;: salle de Broch Edin. Vestiges d'une époque fort de fer près de l'abbaye de Saint-Bathans. Vue sur le sud-ouest de l'entrée.
context_page_description: Abbey St Bathans is a parish in the Lammermuir district of Berwickshire, in the eastern part of the Scottish Borders. Unique in its topography, it is situated in a long winding steep wooded valley that follows the Whiteadder Water. The parish had a population of 106 at the 2011 Census.
context_section_description: Abbey St Bathans was originally a priory of Cistercian Nuns established in the 12th century. It was sanctified and then used as a retreat by the sisters who formed the community at Haddington and at Nunraw, under the patronage of Ada, Countess of Dunbar and her husband Patrick, Earl of Dunbar.
  
  While there is no priory today there is a small church, or Kirk, in private ownership situated in the centre of the village.  The Kirk was rebuilt in the 18th century and incorporates, in the east and north walls, late 14th century remains of the Church of the Priory of St Mary - the original Cistercian priory founded in the late 12th or early 13th centuries (exact date unknown) and secularised in 1622. 
  In the mid-1960s a deposit or "midden" was found by the existing Kirk, on the river bank where such a "tip" would logically be located.  This contained many shards of pottery which were identified as mediaeval by the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh.  This suggests that the priory was located in the riverside meadow area around the existing Kirk, and a dig would probably reveal some of the structure.  This deposit was discovered and excavated by Mrs. E. K. Robb, whose family used to holiday in the village.
  The dedication is to Saint Bathan (Scottish Gaelic: Baithéne mac Brénaind) the second abbot of Iona. A Minister used to be shared with nearby hamlet of Longformacus.   
  There is evidence that Abbey St Bathans has been inhabited for at least 2500 years with the discovery of bronze age artefacts including a bronze age dagger, and the presence of the nearby Edins Hall Broch, an Iron Age defensive structure.
caption: Edins Hall Broch
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