Sweetheart Abbey
| An Abaid Ur | |
 |
|
| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Abbey of Dulce Cor |
| Other names | New Abbey Pow |
| Order | Cistercian |
| Established | 1273 |
| Disestablished | 1624 |
| Mother house | Dundrennan Abbey |
| Dedicated to | St Mary the Virgin |
| Diocese | Diocese of Galloway |
| Controlled churches | Buittle; Crossmichael; Kirkcolm; Kirkpatrick-Durham; Lochkindeloch; Wigtown |
| People | |
| Founder(s) | Dervorguilla of Galloway; Abbot Henry, S.O.Cist. |
| Architecture | |
| Style | Early English |
| Site | |
| Location | New Abbey, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, United Kingdom |
| Visible remains | Abbey church, precinct wall, chapterhouse |
The Abbey of Dulce Cor, better known as Sweetheart Abbey (Gd: An Abaid Ur), or New Abbey Pow, was a Cistercian monastery founded in 1275 in what is now the town of New Abbey, Dumfries and Galloway, 8 miles (13 km) south of Dumfries, near to the Nith in south-west Scotland. It was suppressed in 1624.
The abbey, located on the banks of the River Pow, was founded by Dervorguilla of Galloway, daughter of Alan, Lord of Galloway, in memory of her husband, Baron John de Balliol. After his death, she kept his embalmed heart, contained in a casket of ivory and silver, with her for the rest of her life, and it was buried alongside her when she died. In line with this devotion to her late husband, she named the abbey Dulce Cor (Latin for Sweet Heart). Their son, also John, became King of Scotland, but his reign was tragic and short.
Under the first abbot, Henry, the abbey was built in deep-red, local sandstone in the Early English style. It was founded as a daughter house to the nearby Dundrennan Abbey; thus this novum monasterium (new monastery) became known as the "New Abbey Pow".
The immediate abbey precincts extended to 30 acres (120,000 m2) and sections of the surrounding wall can still be seen today. The abbey church, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, measures 203 feet (62 m), and the central tower rose to a height of 92 feet (28 m).
The Abbot of Sweetheart was a member of the First Estate and sat ex officio in the Parliament. The Cistercian Order—whose members were commonly known as the White Monks because of the white cowl which they wear over their religious habit—built many great abbeys after their establishment around 1100. Like many of their abbeys, the New Abbey's interests lay not only in prayer and contemplation but in the farming and commercial activity of the area, making it the centre of local life.
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