The Nether Yett

You’ll need to look for this one; it isn’t beside the Abbey ruins. The Nether Yett is a fragment of the abbey’s south gateway, standing about 240 metres south-east of the main precinct, off Moodie Street by Old Kirk Cottage, overlooking the Tower Burn and Pittencrieff Park. Historic Environment Scotland says it was probably the main way into the monastic precinct from the south, sometimes known as the South Port, and is a rare upstanding example of a medieval monastic precinct gateway.

What survives is the west jamb and the spring of an arch, with a stretch of ashlar sandstone wall attached, probably from the mid-12th century. The gateway was later incorporated into the boundary wall of the abbey church manse, which is why it now feels slightly stranded from the church and palace. It was first scheduled in 1981, and the scheduling was amended in 2014 so the documentation would meet modern standards. The monument, HES says, can tell us about the layout and extent of the precinct, and about medieval ideas of spiritual and temporal separation.

It’s a short detour if you’re already on Moodie Street for the Carnegie Birthplace or walking up from the lower glen. There are no published opening hours because it stands in the open, as a scheduled monument. Look, and leave the masonry as you find it. If you want the precinct story in standing buildings, the Abbey nave, palace range and the short stretch of precinct wall on Canmore Street are the other pieces of the same boundary.