Lindsay Neil
The top end of the ‘Clocksorrow’ ravine. It carried the outflow from the Haining loch and was quite sufficient to drive a mill
Mystery has always attended the site of Selkirk abbey. As the first abbey established in Scotland in the early 12th century, one can be forgiven for feeling that its existence has been overlooked, or at least not given the importance it deserved. One may also ask why it has never been seriously looked for. The country is dotted with ruins attesting to the many abbeys which followed Selkirk’s, but of the first there is not a trace, not a stone nor a folk memory pointing to where it was. Since its establishment, not one sod of earth has been turned over in an effort to find it, although much has been written. As the abbey was only in Selkirk for fifteen years, perhaps this could account for the mystery.