Beauly Priory (Inverness)

Introduction

Beauly Priory was a Valliscaulian monastic community located at "Insula de Achenbady", now Beauly, Inverness-shire. It was probably founded in 1230. It is not known for certain who the founder was, different sources giving Alexander II of Scotland, John Bisset and both. The French monks, along with Bisset (a nearby, recently settled landowner), had a strong enough French-speaking presence to give the location and the river the name "beau-lieu" ("beautiful place") and have it pass into English.

Open all year round at any reasonable time.

History to the present day

It is not the best documented abbey, and few of the priors of Beauly are known by name until the 14th century. It became Cistercian on April 16, 1510, after the suppression of the Valliscaulian Order by the Pope. The priory was gradually secularized, and ruled by a series of commendators. The priory's lands were given over to the bishop of Ross by royal charter on October 20, 1634. The ruins today are still extensive and are one of the main visitor attractions in Inverness-shire.

In its original form the church was probably an elongated triangle, with no more than a timber screen between the monks' choir and the nave, where the lay folk might be admitted. A chapel or sacristy block was attached to its north side. At some stage part of the east monastic range was absorbed as a chapel, giving the building its present cross-shaped plan. In the early 15th century another chapel was added to the north, and a century later the west end was rebuilt. By 1780 most of the domestic buildings of the priory had disappeared. Parts of them would have been destroyed soon after the Reformation in 1560 and other parts were removed to build Oliver Cromwell's citadel in Inverness in 1653.

Arrival information and how to find us

The Priory is in Beauly on the A862.