Coldingham

Coldingham is a historic village in Berwickshire, Scottish Borders, on Scotland's southeast coastline, north of Eyemouth. As early as AD 660, Coldingham was the site of a religious establishment of high order, when it is recorded that Etheldreda, the queen of Egfrid, became a nun at the Abbey of Coldingham, then under the management of Æbbe the Elder, aunt of her husband. Bede describes it as "the Monastery of Virgins" and states that in 679 the monastery burnt down. It was rebuilt, but was again destroyed by fire at the hands of a raiding party of Danes in 870. This time the ruins were not rebuilt, it would appear, until 1098, when the Priory of Coldingham was founded by King Edgar in honour of St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne. It became...