Beyond the above facts, there is no information whatever preserved that has any bearing on the history of the erection of the abbey buildings. No contracts are referred to, nor in its records is the name of any particular abbot associated with the building of any part of the abbey. The next recorded event in connection with the structure is its destruction, or partial destruction, during Somerset’s invasion in 1547, when Admiral Thomas Wyndham, on the night of the 25th December, assailed the monastery, and in the words of his own report,[178] “he bornt the abbey with all thyngs that wer in it.” This damage was, doubtless, to a certain extent repaired; but a more serious encounter was approaching. In 1559 Balmerino suffered the usual fate of similar establishments. The Earl of Argyle and the Prior of St. Andrews, having destroyed the churches of St. Andrews, “convened a great company of countrymen and passed to the abbeys of Lindores and Balmerino, the Parish Kirks within Fife, and did the like.”[179] Bishop Leslie ascribes the demolition of the abbey to “certain most worthless men, of the common people.” As usually happened in connection with all the other abbeys at this period, a nobleman or Court favourite was appointed commendator, who drew two-thirds of the revenue, the remainder being reserved for the reformed minister and the Crown. John Hay, descended from the family of Naughton (a large property in the neighbourhood), was appointed commendator in 1561. The office was resigned into the king’s hands in 1605, whereupon the abbacy was converted into a temporal lordship, in favour of Sir James Elphinstone, with the title of Lord Balmerino. The abbey buildings (Fig. 898) are in a very ruinous state, only the chapter house with the erections adjoining it being at all well preserved. The north wall of the nave with the west wall of the north transept remain throughout their whole length for about 5 feet above the ground. In the month of March 1896, the Rev. Dr. Campbell was allowed by the proprietor to make some excavations, and as the result of a few days’ work sufficient remains were disclosed to enable a fairly accurate plan of the church to be made. And if the work of excavation were carried further, the rubbish removed, and most of the trees cut down which at present crowd the site, there is no doubt but that a much more complete plan of the church and abbey would be disclosed. [Illustration: FIG. 898.--Balmerino Abbey. Plan.]