Abbey Church, North Berwick - Lammermuir Festival

The Abbey Church was built in 1868 to house a congregation formed by the union of a Free Church with a United Presbyterian church. It was designed by Robert R Raeburn in Early English style. The site had been used in the 18th Century by a ‘praying society’ but it is not known why the new church was named ‘Abbey’. One plausible theory is that the area was known locally as the ‘abbey lands’ because it included the ruins of a mediaeval Cistercian priory. Among the church’s stained glass windows is one by Sax Shaw (1972) which has an arrangement of suspended planes representing an ascent of doves.