Balgrummo Den, to the rear of the Lodging, may have been an enormous cavern, of which the roof collapsed some thousands of years ago. Therefore it seems not unreasonable to assume that old tales of a labyrinth or maze beneath the Lodging, of which Saint Nectan’s Holy Weem is a part, have some foundation in fact.
So presumably there once existed, and perhaps still exists, beneath the Priory which stood upon this site, a “holy cave” containing a spring of water once used in rites; this cave, improved by art, may have been not unlike Saint Fillan’s Cave at Pittenweem, in Fife, which still may be inspected.
These subterranean reaches beneath the present Balgrummo’s Lodging were known in medieval times as “Saint Nectan’s Purgatory.” A handsome and broad “Pilgrims’ Stair,” tortuously quarried from the living rock, is said to have twisted down to the Purgatory. A portion of the priory structures, as well as of the earlier Templars’ buildings, is incorporated in the present Balgrummo Lodging; but even the whereabouts of the “Pilgrims’ Stair” is quite unknown today.
This Stair and Saint Nectan’s Purgatory were “destroyed” by the Archbishop of St. Andrews, at papal insistence, about the year 1500. Probably the “destruction” consisted of removing the portable contents of the Weem and sealing the entrance or entrances thoroughly.
It is believed that the Third Laird of Balgrummo, or “Warlock Laird,” reopened the souterrain not earlier than 1570, for purposes which remain conjectural. He may have enlarged the passages and chambers within; he was accused by the Regent Morton of having done so, and there exists some documentary evidence to suggest that he kept at work about the Lodging a considerable body of miner-serfs. With a number of retainers, miners among them, the Third Laird retreated into the subterranean areas when the Earl of Morton’s troops stormed the Lodging in 1578. The entrance to the Weem was blown up from within, presumably upon the Third Laird’s orders, to prevent his being taken and burnt as a warlock. Traditionary tales notwithstanding, it may be assumed that neither the Third Laird nor any of his party escaped from the Weem. Thus this house stands over dead men’s bones.
The Fourth Laird, some years after succeeding to the estate, shored up the foundations of the northern face of the Lodging, that quarter of the house having been shaken by his father’s men’s use of gunpowder in sealing the entrance to the Weem. In doing so, the Fourth Laird’s masons must have blocked still further the old access to the underground reaches.
So much may be gathered from the Fourth Laird’s papers and lesser sources. May we assume that no person has penetrated to the old Purgatory since the destruction of 1578? As recently as last year, the Balgrummo Trust (which is chiefly Miss Euphemia Inchburn) denied a request from the Ancient Monuments Commission for permission to examine the older portions of the Lodging. Such has been the policy of the Inchburns ever since the succession of the Fourth Laird. Although the last Lord Balgrummo was much interested in regaining entrance to the Purgatory, it is certain that he had not been able to do so by 1913, when his “Trouble” undid him. The rituals of his circle-I give you personal testimony—were held in the existing damaged chapel, not in the Weem.
There is no evidence available as to whether he tried to reach the Purgatory after his isolation under house arrest here in the Lodging. Gillespie, the Balgrummo Trust’s solicitor, informs me that the Trust authorized no expenditures for such purposes during the whole of the last lord’s house confinement. I continue to examine Lord Balgrummo’s personal papers upon this point, but much of what fragmentary notes were kept by him appears to be in code.
As I mentioned above, no approach to the old Pilgrims’ Stair has been discovered. In the present cellars no indication exists of an
So presumably there once existed, and perhaps still exists, beneath the Priory which stood upon this site, a “holy cave” containing a spring of water once used in rites; this cave, improved by art, may have been not unlike Saint Fillan’s Cave at Pittenweem, in Fife, which still may be inspected.
These subterranean reaches beneath the present Balgrummo’s Lodging were known in medieval times as “Saint Nectan’s Purgatory.” A handsome and broad “Pilgrims’ Stair,” tortuously quarried from the living rock, is said to have twisted down to the Purgatory. A portion of the priory structures, as well as of the earlier Templars’ buildings, is incorporated in the present Balgrummo Lodging; but even the whereabouts of the “Pilgrims’ Stair” is quite unknown today.
This Stair and Saint Nectan’s Purgatory were “destroyed” by the Archbishop of St. Andrews, at papal insistence, about the year 1500. Probably the “destruction” consisted of removing the portable contents of the Weem and sealing the entrance or entrances thoroughly.
It is believed that the Third Laird of Balgrummo, or “Warlock Laird,” reopened the souterrain not earlier than 1570, for purposes which remain conjectural. He may have enlarged the passages and chambers within; he was accused by the Regent Morton of having done so, and there exists some documentary evidence to suggest that he kept at work about the Lodging a considerable body of miner-serfs. With a number of retainers, miners among them, the Third Laird retreated into the subterranean areas when the Earl of Morton’s troops stormed the Lodging in 1578. The entrance to the Weem was blown up from within, presumably upon the Third Laird’s orders, to prevent his being taken and burnt as a warlock. Traditionary tales notwithstanding, it may be assumed that neither the Third Laird nor any of his party escaped from the Weem. Thus this house stands over dead men’s bones.
The Fourth Laird, some years after succeeding to the estate, shored up the foundations of the northern face of the Lodging, that quarter of the house having been shaken by his father’s men’s use of gunpowder in sealing the entrance to the Weem. In doing so, the Fourth Laird’s masons must have blocked still further the old access to the underground reaches.
So much may be gathered from the Fourth Laird’s papers and lesser sources. May we assume that no person has penetrated to the old Purgatory since the destruction of 1578? As recently as last year, the Balgrummo Trust (which is chiefly Miss Euphemia Inchburn) denied a request from the Ancient Monuments Commission for permission to examine the older portions of the Lodging. Such has been the policy of the Inchburns ever since the succession of the Fourth Laird. Although the last Lord Balgrummo was much interested in regaining entrance to the Purgatory, it is certain that he had not been able to do so by 1913, when his “Trouble” undid him. The rituals of his circle-I give you personal testimony—were held in the existing damaged chapel, not in the Weem.
There is no evidence available as to whether he tried to reach the Purgatory after his isolation under house arrest here in the Lodging. Gillespie, the Balgrummo Trust’s solicitor, informs me that the Trust authorized no expenditures for such purposes during the whole of the last lord’s house confinement. I continue to examine Lord Balgrummo’s personal papers upon this point, but much of what fragmentary notes were kept by him appears to be in code.
As I mentioned above, no approach to the old Pilgrims’ Stair has been discovered. In the present cellars no indication exists of an
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