dissolution, but after further attacks and damage the abbey was declared officially derelict in 1587. Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell had a house at the Abbey, and James VI visited in January 1591. By the late 16th century the estates of the former monastery came under fully secular control and in 1607 they were finally granted as a secular lordship, titled Holydean, to the last commendator of the abbey, Robert Ker of Cesford. Post-reformation usage Between 1647 and 1771, part of the abbey ruins was occupied by a parish kirk, with other parts of the structure being dismantled and used as a source of stone by locals for buildings in the town of Kelso. The post-reformation kirk appears to have been a compact vaulted structure intruded within the west transepts in about 1748. This adapted structure included a vaulted gaol. In 1805, huge parts of the ruins were cleared away, including the parish church and the gaol, leaving only the abbey's west tower and transept remaining to this day. A more recent addition (1933) has been a memorial cloister to the 8th Duke of Roxburghe designed by Reginald Fairlie in the original style of the cloisters when the abbey was first built. Architectural notes Little of the ground plan of this once large abbey exists, but the surviving ruin of the west tower, together with its crossing, is impressive and shows a building that was strong and fortress like. Evidence from Vatican archives, dated 1517, indicates that the complete building had two crossings, west and east, each with single towers, a double-cruciform design that was relatively rare in Europe. The high altar of the abbey would have been at the east tower crossing. Although the east end does not survive, it may have been in a rounded form if, as would be expected, the firm Romanesque design of the extant western tower was consistent throughout the building. The gable of the north transept of the west tower crossing (pictured right) presents the most intact surviving face. The earliest remains of the abbey are the two bays of the south arcade of the nave (partly visible at the far left of the picture). These have rounded arches dating from about 1128. Later additions above this are a triforium from the late 12th Century, and above this clerestory is a continuous arcade. There is no regular vertical pattern between three levels