Little Miracles: Beauly Priory

Last year at this time I was in Scotland, which means that I am now officially a year behind on the blog! Ack! It happens so quickly! I am really going to make an effort to get all caught up in the next few weeks...so, without further ado, let's return to my adventures abroad!

Beauly Priory; Beauly, Scotland

Beauly Priory was founded around 1230 by monks of the Valliscaulian order. They came from their mother house in Burgundy, in France, and settled beside the Beauly River, at the place where it enters the Beauly Firth. They were invited to do so by the lord, Sir John Bisset. And there their successors lived for the next 300 years, until the Protestant Reformation of 1560 brought their cloistered and contemplative life to an abrupt end. Today their legacy lives on, in their pretty, tree-fringed abbey church, roofless but otherwise largely intact.

Only the abbey church now survives. It takes the form of a Latin cross, with a three-bay choir to the east, and a seven-bay nave to the west, and at their junction two flanking transepts to north and south.
Neither the choir nor the nave was aisled. The entire building, except the south transept, was laid out in a single operation. However, the surviving structure exhibits architectural styles from throughout its time as a place of worship. These include the 13th-century Y-tracery windows lighting the presbytery, the three trefoiled windows lighting the monks’ choir, and the graceful west front, rebuilt as late as the 1540s by Abbot Robert Reid.
The church houses some fine funerary monuments. There is one to Prior Alexander Mackenzie (died 1479) at the entrance to the south transept, now minus its effigy. Another one, dedicated to Kenneth Mackenzie of Kintail (died 1492), stands at the entrance to the north transept, still with its knightly effigy. Other Mackenzie tombs lie in the north transept, which was restored in 1900–01 as their burial aisle and is normally locked.

It became a Cistercian home around 1510. The church was roofless in 1633, the stone is said to have been used by Cromwell to build a fort in Inverness in 1650. A plaque tells of Mary Queen of Scots’ visit here in 1564 and her travels in the Highlands.

Located in the village of Beauly, the ruined church of a Valliscaulian priory, is one of three founded by the order in 1230. Part of the building was later rebuilt. - See more at: http://www.explore-inverness.com/what-to-do/castles-great-places/beauly-priory-ruin/#sthash.gOM0dP3b.dpuf

It became a Cistercian home around 1510. The church was roofless in 1633, the stone is said to have been used by Cromwell to build a fort in Inverness in 1650.
It was the burial ground for the chiefs of Clan Lovat (Frasers) - "In 1544 Beauly Priory saw a sad funeral procession enter the restored church, bearing the bodies of Hugh Lord Lovat and his eldest son (by his first wife) Hugh Master of Lovat, killed in a clan fight. Lord Lovat's son (by his second wife) Alexander, who succeeded on his father's and elder half-brother's death, before 1555 married Janet, the daughter of Sir John Campbell of Cawdor."
A plaque tells of Mary Queen of Scots' visit here in 1564 and her travels in the Highlands. Descriptive plaques point out all the points of interest.
- See more at: http://www.explore-inverness.com/what-to-do/castles-great-places/beauly-priory-ruin/#sthash.gOM0dP3b.dpuf