Beauly Priory

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Beauly Priory
Monastery information

Order	Valliscaulian, Cistercian (after 1510)
Mother house	Val-des-Choux
Established	1230
Disestablished	1634
Diocese	Diocese of Moray
Controlled churches	Abertarff; Comar; Conveth
People
Founder	Alexander II of Scotland
Important associated figures	Robert Reid
Location	{{{location}}}
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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. 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.

[edit] Bibliography

Cowan, Ian B. & Easson, David E., Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland With an Appendix on the Houses in the Isle of Man, Second Edition, (London, 1976), p. 84
Watt, D.E.R. & Shead, N.F. (eds.), The Heads of Religious Houses in Scotland from the 12th to the 16th Centuries, The Scottish Records Society, New Series, Volume 24, (Edinburgh, 2001), pp. 15-18