Welcome to Pluscarden Abbey

One of Northern Scotland's most unusual attractions and one which is unique in Britain, is Pluscarden Abbey, near Elgin. It is the only medieval monastery in Britain still inhabited by monks and being used for its original purpose. Founded in 1230 by Alexander II, its site in a sheltered, south-facing glen against a background of forested hillside, adds to its beauty.

The road to Pluscarden winds south-west across the wooded countryside round Elgin. Six miles are all that separate the busy High Street of the county town from this peaceful valley, but those six miles take us back well over six centuries in time.

The atmosphere of quiet reflection and of work dedicated to the glory of God is the same today as it was in the thirteenth century when an organised community of monks first came to this part of Morayshire; and under the skilful hands of the present-day brethren Pluscarden Abbey is a living entity that is returning again to something approaching its former splendour after so long a period of pillage and decay.

If you are privileged to visit the Abbey today, you can enjoy not only the beauty of its architecture and its setting but also something of the restful atmosphere of devotion that has so deeply permeated this little corner of Scotland.

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Profound the peace of Pluscarden,
As if the pine-green closing hills
Shut in the grace
Of God and all his holy Saints.
The Lauds and Matins of the past,
In that calm place,
Still seem to linger on the air
Half-heard, half-dreamt, so wholly felt
There is no time,
The soul is raised above the now,
Beyond the then. Eternity
Of faith sublime
Outlasting all the moods of fate
And savage treacheries of man,
To rise again
Triumphant from defeated stone,
And draw within its sanctuary
All human pain.

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Symposium on Scottish Sacred Music