Historic Environment Scotland (HES) is appealing to the public for information after a "very serious incident of heritage crime" took place at a historic abbey in Ayrshire.
The damage was done to the 13th century pier of Kilwinning Abbey, which supports the arched entrance into what used to be the abbey’s south-west tower.
One of the lower courses of the pier has been completely destroyed, with the stone still lying on the scene of the crime, HES said.
HES is now working closely with Police Scotland to investigate the incident. To avoid any further damage to the pier, a replacement stone will be cut using templates from the neighbouring stones and installed into the void.
Gillian Gardner, Physical Security Senior Manager at HES, said: “This is the worst case of heritage crime I have seen in a long time. It is heart-breaking to see historic fabric destroyed in this manner.
READ MORE: One of Scotland's 'most wanted' admits to £76m cocaine smuggling
“As highlighted in our recent campaign with CrimeStoppers and Police Scotland, heritage crime is a serious matter which damages our historic sites and robs us of our history.
"Reckless acts such as this one carry the risk of serious injury to both the perpetrator and anyone else on-site. Not only is it dangerous, but this kind of vandalism has a knock-on effect on all of our sites, as our conservation specialists are pulled away from their core conservation work on other monuments to tend to these incidents.
“We urge anyone with information regarding this incident that could help investigations to get in touch with Police Scotland on 101; or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or crimestoppers-uk.org.”
Kilwinning Abbey was founded in the late 1100s. It has close ties to Kelso Abbey, one of Scotland’s great Borders abbeys, which provided it with colonising monks.
The abbey was ‘cast down’ following the Protestant Reformation of 1560, though its south transept still stands nearly to its full height today.
Back in April 2022, vandals caused “irreversible damage” at the abbey after a stolen wheelie bin was set alight within the ruins.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here