Post-reformation End
A small remaining contingent of monks may have continued at the site for a number of years following the 1560 dissolution, but after further attacks and damage the abbey was declared officially derelict in 1587. By the late 16th century the estates of the former monastery came under fully secular control when, in 1607, they were finally granted as a secular lordship, titled Holydean, to the last commendator of the abbey, Robert Ker of Cesford.
Between 1647 and 1771, part of the abbey ruins were occupied by a parish kirk, with other parts of the structure being dismantled and used as a source of stone by locals for buildings in the town of Kelso. The post-reformation kirk appears to have been a compact vaulted structure intruded within the west transepts in about 1748. This adapted structure included a vaulted gaol.
In 1805, huge parts of the ruins were cleared away, including the parish church and the gaol, leaving only the abbey's west tower and transept remaining to this day. A more recent addition (1933) has been a memorial cloister to the 8th Duke of Roxburghe built in the original style of the cloisters when the abbey was first built, and designed by Reginald Fairlie.
Read more about this topic: Kelso Abbey