Priory Church of Urquhart.

 

OS Ref: NJ 289626   RCAHMS No: NJ26SE 9

The priory church of the Holy Trinity at Urquhart was founded in 1125 by King David as a political, as well as religious, move. He hoped that the presence of the holy house would help to pacify the wild men of Moray who were frequently in revolt against the throne. It was a cell of royal Abbey of Dunfermline and was thus a house of the Benedictine Order.

The Priory was liberally endowed - the lands of Urquhart; the village of Fothopir (Fochabers) with a fishing on the Spey that belonged to the Thane of Fothopir; Penid near Auldearn; the lands of Dalcross and all the other rights in Moray that, at the time, belonged to the Abbey of Dunfermline.

Sadly, nothing remains of the Priory at all and its site is often mistaken as being where the graveyard is in the village. Perhaps, one day, the antiquarians of Moray will take it upon themselves to create a marker of some sort - perhaps where the Speyside Way runs close by the site? It is to be hoped so.

 

	The site of Urquhart Priory as it is today. In the middle distance, in the grass field, the building is a bridge where the railways once ran.