Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 37 on 20/03/2008.

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Northern delights

John Hannavy explores historic churches, abbeys and cathedrals in Scotland’s north east.

When a group of Benedictine monks arrived at the remains of Pluscarden Priory in Kale Glen near Elgin 60 years ago, it must have taken an enormous amount of belief, and considerable vision, to ever imagine that the ruins which greeted them could be brought back to life as a monastic community.

They had travelled north from Prinknash Abbey in Gloucestershire in 1948 to undertake their task, and within seven years, the central tower of the church had been reroofed.

By 1960, they had completed work on the domestic range which runs south from the south transept, and today, the choir and transepts of the abbey church are back in full use. There is a question mark over whether or not there was ever a nave to the church, although the foundations can be seen at ground level, and a roofline is visible in the west wall.

The priory was originally established by King Alexander II in 1230 and the monks came from Vallis Caulium – ‘the valley of the cabbage’ or kale – in France to establish one of only three monasteries of the order in Scotland. By 1454, however, the Valliscaulian monks had gone, and the abbey, now under the Benedictine order, was populated by monks from Dunfermline Abbey in Fife. The Benedictines only left in the closing years of the 16th century, long after the Reformation had dismantled monasticism in Scotland.

Throughout the following three centuries, under a variety of owners, the buildings fell into disrepair and many were used as quarries, but there was still mor.....

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By John Hannavy

Section : Scotland Churches

Page number : 18