Sweetheart Abbey ***

Region: Dumfries & Galloway

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Description:

Sweetheart Abbey was founded in 1275AD as a Cistercian religious house. It was a daughterhouse of Dundrennan Abbey, and therefore referred to as "Novum Monasterium" ("new monastery"). The name "New Abbey" stuck, and the village remains so-named to the present day.

It was Lady Dervorguilla of Galloway who granted a charter in memory of her husband, John Balliol, who had died in 1268. Following his death, she carried his embalmed heart with her in an ivory box wherever she went. When she died, she was buried at the abbey, with the casket containing the heart alongside her. The monks renamed the abbey "Dulce Cor" (Sweetheart Abbey) in tribute to her.