This abbey, like so many others, stands in a fertile holm or flat ground in the quiet valley of the Water of Luce, about one mile and a half from the town of Glenluce. Although sometimes called _Vallis Lucis_, the name is probably the same as Luss in Dumbartonshire, meaning a place of herbs. The abbey was founded in 1190 by Roland, Lord of Galloway, and colonised by Cistercians from Melrose. The buildings were at one time “extensive and magnificent,” but the ruins are now very scanty. Of the church (Fig. 1054) there remain only parts of the south wall of the choir and the south wall of the south transept. The cloister enclosure is still marked by a good wall, but of the conventual buildings which formerly surrounded it, only the chapter house and some vaulted cellars on the east side survive. The existing ruins cover about an acre of ground, but formerly the enclosure of the garden and orchard extended to twelve Scotch acres. Little is known of the annals of the monastery. Its earliest charter is by Robert I., granting the property of the abbey to be held as a free barony, and this was confirmed by David II. At the Reformation the lands were leased at a low rate to the Earl of Cassilis, who was created [Illustration: FIG. 1054.--Glenluce Abbey. Plan.] [Illustration: FIG. 1055.--Glenluce Abbey. Chapter House.] [Illustration: FIG. 1056.--Glenluce Abbey. View from South-East.] bailie of the abbey. In 1587 the estates were annexed to the Crown. James VI. erected them into a temporal barony in favour of Laurence Gordon, commendator at the time. The lordship of Glenluce afterwards passed to the Stair family, and the lands to the Hays of Park.[77] [Illustration: FIG. 1057.--Glenluce Abbey. Doorway to Chapter House: Exterior.] In this remote region the buildings remained long undisturbed, and as late as 1646 the abbey is referred to in the Records of the Presbytery of Stranraer as having received little injury.[78] “The steeple,” says Symson, who wrote in 1684, “and part of the walls of the church, together with the chapter house, the walls of the cloyster, the gatehouse with the walls of the large precincts, are for the most part yet standing.” So far as can now be ascertained from the ruins, the church (see Fig. 1054) seems to have comprised a nave with aisles about 90 feet in length, [Illustration: FIG. 1058.--Glenluce Abbey. Doorway to Chapter House: Interior.]