PLUSCARDEN ABBEY
Pluscarden was founded as a religious community in 1230
AD for an order of monks from France, the Valliscaulians, who built other priories at
Ardchattan and Beauly. Two centuries later in 1454 Pluscarden was assumed by the
Benedictines from Dunfermline.
The Priory and estates were owned by the MacKenzie of Tarbat
family from 1649 to 1662 until purchased by the Earl of Caithness and subsequently became
the property of successive Earls of Fife. The 4th Earl in the year 1830 partly restored
the buildings and encouraged the Presbyterian form of worship. The property was then
acquired by the 3rd Marquess of Bute, who was a Catholic, which resulted in the first Mass
since the Reformation being celebrated in 1897.
Lord Colum Crichton-Stuart, son of the 3rd Marquess,
inherited Pluscarden in 1900 and donated the property to the Abbot of Prinknash in 1943,
thus facilitating the resurgence to Benedictine life at the Priory. Five monks moved into
Pluscarden in April 1948, and several centuries of history dissolved into a few seconds of
time. The ruined walls of our Abbey Church are an unhappy reminder of its destruction in
the past.
The Abbey is part of Scotland’s heritage and one of the outstanding buildings in
the North. It is visited each year by many thousands of people. A Home of God which has
witnessed so much of Scotland’s history and is today a place of living prayer and
peace.