Based on the research undertaken by the West Cumbria Archaeological Society over the past fourteen years, the recent publication of Holme Cultram Abbey, An Archaeological  and Historical Guide (27 pages) is to be welcomed as a  very accessible, well illustrated account of the Abbey’s history and of the excavation and geophysical work undertaken by Society members and members of the community   with Grampus Heritage Training Ltd. The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Solway Sustainable Community Fund provided financial support. Founded as a daughter house of the Cistercian abbey of Melrose, the artefacts found during the excavations provided further evidence to that of surviving archives of the abbey’s trading and other contacts with the outside world ; as a house of the Cistercian Order, its abbots attended Chapter General meetings at the Order’s headquarters at Citeaux in France. Later this year, the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society will publish a full-scale monograph on the excavations of the Abbey site in  2011 – 19.