Visitors to Balmerino Abbey may know its remarkable 500 year old Spanish chestnut, planted perhaps by Mary Queen of Scots. But nearby stands a much younger tree with an interesting story of its own.
Balmerino was founded in 1229, through the patronage of Queen Ermengarde, widow of William the Lion, and became a Cistercian monastery. Exactly 750 years later, a young Spanish chestnut was planted, providing a living link with the abbey’s past and echoing its famous ancient tree.
Easily overlooked amidst the surrounding undergrowth, a plaque records the planting of that tree and connects its medieval Catholic past with a local priest who would devote more than half a century to serving the Diocese of Dunkeld.
Fr McBride, later our beloved Mgr Ken McBride, was ordained for the Diocese of Dunkeld in 1962. He became parish priest at nearby Newport-on-Tay in 1970. That made him the local Catholic priest for the area around Balmerino when the anniversary was celebrated in 1979. Mgr Ken McBride celebrated 50 years as a priest in 2012 and retired in 2018 after 56 years of ministry.
Who will plant the next tree, in 2029, to mark the Abbey’s 800th anniversary.
Photography – Andrew Mitchell