Pluscarden Abbey

Infobox monastery
name= Pluscarden Abbey


caption =
full =
other_names =
order= Benedictine
established= c.1230 (re-established in 1948)
disestablished = 1587
mother= Prinknash Abbey
(Prev. Val des Choux; Dunfermline Abbey)
diocese =Diocese of Aberdeen (present)
Diocese of Moraviensis (historical)
churches =
founder = Alexander II of Scotland
dedication = The Abbey of Our Lady, Help of Christians
people = Lord Colum Crichton-Stuart
location =
coord = coord|57|36|01|N|03|26|18|W
oscoor =
remains =
public_access =

Pluscarden Abbey is a Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery located in the glen of the Black Burn about 10 kilometres south-west of Elgin, in Moray, Scotland. It has been for most of its history a priory and was founded in 1230 by Alexander III of Scotland [CathEncy|wstitle=Pluscarden Priory] for the Valliscaulian Order.

In 1454, following a merger with the priory of Urquhart, a cell of Dunfermline Abbey, Pluscarden Priory became a Benedictine House. The years immediately preceding the Scottish Reformation, and those after, saw the decline of the priory. By 1680 it was in a ruinous condition. Some work to arrest the decay took place in the late 19th century but it wasn't until 1948 when restoration of the priory was begun by monks from the Benedictine Prinknash Abbey in Gloucestershire. In 1966 the priory received its independence from the mother-house and was elevated to abbatial status in 1974.

History

Valliscaulian priory

The Valliscaulian priory of Pluscarden was founded by , to have taken the three Valliscaulian houses for that of the Carthusians. He recorded this in his Scotichronicon of 1437 [Bower, W: Scotichronicon, Watt, D E R (ed). Aberdeen, 1987, vol 8, p275] and so must have been aware of their customs so soon after the establishment of the one and only Scottish Carthusian monastery in Perth in 1429. [Beckett, N M : The Perth Charterhouse before 1500, Analecta Cartusiana, 128, Salzburg, 1988, p xi;] Alexander II granted the Order extensive lowland estates between the rivers Ness and Spey. He also gave the priory the earnings of mills in Pluscarden, Elgin, Dunkinedir, Molen, Forres and Dulpoten and salmon fishing rights in both the Findhorn and Spey. [ McCormick, Finbar: Excavations at Pluscarden Priory, Moray, Proc Soc Antiq Scot,), p 392] The priory was also granted a tithe on all the iron mined in the forests of Pluscarden. [ McCormick, Finbar: Excavations at Pluscarden Priory, Moray, Proc Soc Antiq Scot,), p 392] All of these taken together meant that Pluscarden prospered. [ Macphail, S R: History of the Religious House of Pluscardyn.1881 Edinburgh. p 80]

Contemporary chronicles from the priory do not exist however the "Liber Pluscardensis" is a history of Scotland which borrows heavily from the writings in the Scotichronicon and Fordun [Historia Gentis Scotorurn, ed Skene, W F (Historians of Scotland vols 1 & 4), Edinburgh, 1871/2] and was penned in Pluscarden in 1461 at the behest of the Abbot of Dunfermline. The document was written by a secular cleric called Maurice Buchanan but he gives no information originating from the priory’s monastic establishment. [ McCormick, Finbar: Excavations at Pluscarden Priory, Moray, Proc Soc Antiq Scot,), p 393]

It has traditionally been held that there were two 14th century fires at the priory. The first was ascribed to Edward I of England in 1303 and the second, in 1390, to Alexander Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan, and called the Wolf of Badenoch. Certainly the physical evidence confirms that there was a significant fire and that the damage caused to the transepts were never restored points to dwindling resources. [McCormick, Finbar: Excavations at Pluscarden Priory, Moray, Proc Soc Antiq Scot,), p 393] In 1398 Prior Thomas Fullonis resigned having served for 21 years. He wrote to the Bishop of Moray informing him of the hard times at the priory but that Prior Alexander (1398 — c 1417) had been elected and had been tasked with repairing the deteriorating church and living areas. [ Macphail, S R: History of the Religious House of Pluscardyn.1881 Edinburgh, p 217] The state of the house, both physically and politically, had by the 15th century, become serious with regular arguments breaking out over who should be prior. Falling income and disjointed contact with France due to the Hundred Year War (1337 — 1453) exacerbated the situation. The Scottish houses were given an exemption from attending the yearly General Chapter at Val de Choux [ Birch, W De Gray Ordinale Conventus Vallis Caulium. London, 1900, p119]

Benedictine priory

In 1453, John Bonally, the Prior of Urquhart formally requested from the Pope that his monastery and Pluscarden be merged. At that time, Urquhart had only two monks and Pluscarden had six. [ Macphail, S R: History of the Religious House of Pluscardyn.1881 Edinburgh, p 223] A papal Bull was issued by Nicholas V on 12 March 1453 joining the priories and from then on Pluscarden became a daughter-house of the Benedictine Dunfermline Abbey. Pluscarden was chosen over Urquhart for the priory location as the buildings were more spacious and thought easier to restore and Bonally was appointed as its first Benedictine prior. [ McCormick, Finbar: Excavations at Pluscarden Priory, Moray, Proc Soc Antiq Scot,), p 393] However, the Abbot of Dunfermline’s representative informed him that he found the priory in need of much renovation; the consequence of nearly 60 years of neglect was that vaulted roofs of the choir and crossing were in danger of collapsing. [ Webster, J: Dunfermline Abbey. Dunfermline, 1948, p 197] About the time of John Bonally irregularities had become common place in the priory of Pluscarden as well as before that at Urquhart and the priors of both places were accused of much sinfulness. [Register of Dunfermline, years 1429, 1454, 1456 pp. 283, 333, 337, 339] Following a commission held into the alleged abuses, Bonally resigned and was succeeded by William Boyce who was the sacrist at Dunfermline Abbey. [Register of Dunfermline, pp. 309 and 353-4] William Boyce, the second Benedictine Prior of Pluscarden, was given responsibility for the maintenance of the church fabric of Dunfermline Abbey from Abbot Richard de Bothwell (1445 – 70) at the time that the west end of the abbey’s nave was restored. [Webster, J: Dunfermline Abbey. Dunfermline, 1948, p 231] The inference has been made that it was during this prior’s tenure that some major improvements were carried out at Pluscarden. [Hannah, I C: Screens and lofts in Scottish churches, Proc Soc Antiq Scot,Vol. 70, pp 181-201] Indeed by 1506, King James IV was able to stay at the priory and was noted as giving the masons working on the building a sum of 15 shillings for buying drink. [Anson, P F: A Monastery in Moray, London, 1959, p 101] The 16th century complement at Pluscarden as shown by their signatures on charters show that there was seven monks in 1500, nine in 1508, thirteen in 1524 and also in 1548, and eleven in 1558. [ McCormick, Finbar: Excavations at Pluscarden Priory, Moray, Proc Soc Antiq Scot,), p 393] After the Reformation, the rental of the priory in 1561 gives details of the inhabitants — five monks, a chamberlain with two servants, a master-cook, master-baker, porter and a gardener. [ Macphail, S R: History of the Religious House of Pluscardyn, Edinburgh, 1881, p 254f] George Learmonth (1509 — 29) and Alexander Dunbar (1529 — 60) were the last two priors before the Reformation who, although they were secular clerics, both wore the Benedictine habit. [Dilworth, M: The Commendator System in Scotland', Innes Rev, 37, 1986, p 63] Dunbar, in a similar manner to his contemporary Bishop Patrick Hepburn at Elgin, carried out large-scale alienation of the priory property — in Dunbar's case, to his own family. Dunbar died in 1560 and the community was made the responsibility of a succession of lay commendatory priors who saw to the monastic revenues and the welfare of those monks that remained. The last monk recorded at Pluscarden was Thomas Ross who along with the commendatory prior, Alexander Seton (later to become the 1st Earl of Dunfermline), both witness a grant of fishings in 1586. After the priory ceased to have a monastic community, the estates were administered by lay priors.

During the 17th century, the priory became ruinous and was used as a quarry for the rebuilding of St Giles Kirk, in Elgin. The payments made to hauliers imply that the pulling down of the building must have been on a large scale. [ Anson, P F: A Monastery in Moray, London, 1959, p 158] The lands at Pluscarden came into the ownership of the Earls of Fife and the 4th Earl arrested further deterioration when he converted the east range into a shooting lodge. The property was then bought by John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute in 1897 who commenced a restoration of the church but was halted in 1900 upon his death.

Benedictine abbey

Lord Colum Crichton-Stuart who now owned the buildings at Pluscarden gave the priory and its land to the Benedictine Prinknash Abbey in 1943. The community arrived in 1948 and within seven years the church’s bell tower had been roofed. Restoration work continued and in 1966 the priory obtained its independence from Prinknash and achieving Abbey status in 1974.

Priors and Abbots of Pluscarden

* The exact tenure of the prior is unknown

ee Also

*coord|57|36|01|N|03|26|18|W

Notes

Main references

* Anson, P F: A Monastery in Moray, London, 1959
* Birch, W De Gray Ordinale Conventus Vallis Caulium. London, 1900
* Bower, W: Scotichronicon, Watt, D E R (ed). Aberdeen, 1987, vol 8
* Hannah, I C: Screens and lofts in Scottish churches, Proc Soc Antiq Scot,)
* Historia Gentis Scotorurn, ed Skene, W F (Historians of Scotland vols 1 & 4), Edinburgh, 1871/2
* Macphail, S R: History of the Religious House of Pluscardyn.1881 Edinburgh.
* McCormick, Finbar: Excavations at Pluscarden Priory, Moray, Proc Soc Antiq Scot,)
* Webster, J: Dunfermline Abbey. Dunfermline, 1948