an ecclesiastic character about it. This building does not appear to have been the church. It is more likely that the latter was placed somewhere about the line of the south boundary wall. It could not have stood anywhere outside of what is shown in the Plan on the north side, as in all this locality the ground is inaccessible.
A ruined fragment stands at the south-east corner of the monastery. It is a vaulted apartment, commanding the long reach of the river before
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Fig. 1418.—Blantyre Priory.
Stoup.
it takes its northern bend. There is a narrow pathway in front of this apartment, giving access to it. The path is protected from the cliff by a parapet wall returned at the south end, where there is a shot hole. This parapet has gone on to join the buildings at the prior's house.
The parish church of Blantyre stood in a village of the same name, and belonged to the priory, which is said to have been founded for Austin canons, and endowed with the tithes and revenues of the parish church, by Alexander II. Spottiswoode asserts that Blantyre was a cell depending on Holyrood. In Bagimond's Roll (1275), it is valued at £66, 13s. 4d. Chalmers states that this small monastery was founded by Alexander II. for canons regular brought from Jedburgh, and that the monks of Jedburgh retired here during the war with England.
The barony belonged to the Dunbars as far back as 1368. Walter Stewart, son of the Laird of Minto, was made commendator by James VI., and the Barony of Blantyre was erected, in 1606, into a temporal lordship in his favour, with the title of Lord Blantyre.
COVINGTON CHURCH, Lanarkshire.
Covington is a hamlet in the Upper Ward, about four miles south
from Carstairs Junction. A church existed here from the time of
David I., and is frequently referred to in deeds. It stood near the
Castle[1] of the Lindsays of Covington, who acquired the manor before
1442, and was no doubt in their gift and that of their predecessors in
the property. The dedication seems to have been to St. Michael.[2]
