Lindores Abbey

📌 Newburgh, Fife
★

This former daughter house to Kelso Abbey sits by the south bank of the Firth of Tay on the outskirts of Newburgh. The 12th century site is now very much a ruin but spreads over an impressively large area – although there are no information boards on site, so it’s difficult to visualise how it was originally laid out. In fact the place has another significant claim to fame: it’s documented that the abbey produced whisky for King James IV in 1494, making it Scotland’s first reference to the water of life. Planning permission was granted in 2015 to build a distillery next to the ruins here, returning Scotch whisky to its, err, spiritual home. Whisky production and tours are now in full swing and give a little more background to what abbey life here might have been like – see our separate Lindores Abbey Distillery page for more info.