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Politics & State

Lady Devorgilla Balliol

Lady Devorgilla Balliol

Lady Devorgilla Balliol is remembered for the building of Sweetheart Abbey in New Abbey, 7 miles south west of Dumfries. It is the most beautiful ecclesiastical building in south west Scotland. With her Italian master-mason, Macolo, and John, the first Abbot, she drew up plans for an abbey to be built in memory of her late husband, John Balliol. She carried her husband's embalmed heart, encased in an ivory casket wherever she went, and it was laid beside her when she was buried at Sweetheart Abbey. This is how the abbey came by its romantic name.

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