REPORT OP MEETINGS FOR 1901 71 



are visible, evidently old foundations, from which we may 

 infer that the church was probably within or very close to 

 the walls of the Priory. An arch in the mill stable may be 

 part of the domestic buildings of the Priorjf. At all events 

 it is ancient. One or two place-names in the neighbourhood 

 are distinct mementoes of the monastic age: — ^^The Nuns 

 Close" a field name on the adjoining farm of Low Farnham, 

 and St. Mungo's Well, on the south bank of Holystone burn, 

 opposite to the church. It is of some interest to trace the 

 route of the Glasgow Saint, Kentigern, on his way to St. 

 Asaph's, by the names attached to wells throughout the 

 county. Somewhere near Wooler there is a Mungo's Well; 

 we have St. Mungo's Well at Holystone, and at Simonburn, on 

 North Tyne, there is also St. Mungo's Well. The beautiful well 

 at Holystone, known to us as " The Lady's Well," described 

 in the circular calling this meeting ^^The Well of St. Paulinus," 

 was formerly ^^St. Ninian's Well." There appears, therefore, 

 to have been from very early times a religious halo around 

 Holystone ; and no doubt the pious Umfraville of seven 

 centuries ago, attracted by the situation and the sanctity of the 

 spot, the abundant supply of pure water, and its close proximity 

 to the Coquet, made choice, or probably the members of the 

 Order made choice, of this romantic corner amid the hills 

 of Upper Coquet for the founding of their convent. Besides 

 the lands around Holystone, the sisterhood held gifts of 

 land in various parts of the county, as well as houses in 

 Newcastle. In 1429 Poger Thornton of Newcastle devised 

 in his will one fother of lead to the nuns of Halystane. Of 

 those black-robed nuns who lived their lives in the solitudes 

 of the cloisters at Holystone, we have very few records indeed. 

 No cartulary of Holystone is known to exist, therefore 

 information is scant. We read in the Newminster Cartulary 

 that, in 1272, an exchange of land in Coquetdale took 

 place between Agnes, Prioress of Halistan, and Adam, the 

 Abbot of Newminster. Again, in Kellow's Eegister, there 

 are letters (dated 1313) testifying "as to the miserable 

 state of the nunnery of Halistan by reason of the hostile 

 incursions of the Scots." At the dissolution of religious houses, 

 there were eight nuns at Holystone ; the house was valued 

 at £11 58. 7d. per annum. — (Dugdale.) 



