It is hard to know which is more wonderful: the fact that Pluscarden Abbey survives at all, or the fact that the way of life of its community today is almost exactly as it was when Pluscarden was established in the 13th century.
Either way, anyone fortunate enough to attend its daily offices soon finds themselves reflecting that if one of the brethren present at its foundation were to wake from his tomb and find himself once more in choir, he would know exactly where he was both in terms of geographical place and in terms of place within the liturgical day. The hours observed by the Benedictines of Pluscarden are just as he would have known them: chanted in Latin and in the order prescribed in the original sixth-century Rule. The only thing he would find different would be the form of the Mass itself.
One of the most remarkable survivals from the great age of medieval Christendom, Pluscarden was founded in 1230 by King Alexander II of Scotland. Originally, its monks were Valliscaulians – one of the smaller orders that sprung up during the great monastic renewal of the second millennium. Like the Cistercians, the Valliscaulians were notably austere; in fact the order was eventually absorbed into the Cistercians. Meanwhile, Pluscarden joined the Benedictines in the 15th century when it united itself administratively with nearby Urquhart Priory, both having by that time declined considerably. There were by then only six monks at Pluscarden and a single one at Urquhart.
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This is one of the odd features of the history of monasticism: its general popularity has always ebbed and flowed. There were periods during the Middle Ages when, although the Church herself was in rude health, the monasteries were not. By contrast, during the years immediately following the Second World War, while the Church enjoyed far less prestige than she had during the medieval period, monasticism flourished. Indeed, Pluscarden in its modern form owes its existence to the success of Prinknash Abbey in Gloucestershire which, by the early 1960s, had a community of 80 monks – which enabled it to send sizeable congregations to refound the abbeys at both Pluscarden and Farnborough.
Following its union with Urquhart, Pluscarden enjoyed a period of prosperity that continued for almost a century until the Reformation and the ban on Catholic worship in Scotland in 1560. Thereafter, two refusenik monks held out until Pluscarden was formally dissolved in 1587. For the next three centuries, the buildings fell into increasing disrepair. When it was bought in 1897 by the 3rd Marquess of Bute – reputedly the richest man in the world thanks to his 116,000-acre estate (which included most of Cardiff) – it was little more than a ruin.
Lord Bute had sensationally converted to Catholicism at the age of 21, while a student at Oxford, and restoration began at once. Unfortunately, the work was incomplete at the time of his death and his younger son, having inherited the abbey, sold the surrounding land. When he tried subsequently to find a religious community to take on the remainder, unsurprisingly he found no takers.
It was not until the Benedictines of Prinknash came to the rescue that Pluscarden began finally, if piecemeal, to be returned to its present glory. Today, after immense and still continuing labour, the community is able to worship in the very same church and occupy the very same ancillary buildings as the original community. The remaining grounds have been restored as well. Just as before, the monks work in the abbey’s splendidly fecund orchard and gardens, growing their own fruit and vegetables – an activity in which retreatants at the abbey are invited to join.
When I visited, I found the apple-picking was the easy part of the day. I remember being appalled when, as I child, I was told that monks “went to church” eight times every day – and yet this is precisely what the community at Pluscarden does, starting with Vigils at 4.30am. I must further confess that I made it to that particular office on only three occasions during my nine-day stay. Time spent at Pluscarden is in many respects as far as you can get from the spa and well-being retreat that some acquaintances assumed I must be going on.
Hopefully the spiritual pay-off was commensurately greater – the point of a retreat at Pluscarden is rather to join with the community in its praise of God. That’s what it exists for, after all. A monk becomes a monk not for his own benefit but purely because he wants to dedicate his whole life – every moment of it – to the praise and glory of God. That in itself is the pay-off – as indeed is praying in Latin.
The devotion to Latin at Pluscarden is almost unique among the English Benedictines. Most communities (though not those at Farnborough or Ryde) switched largely to the vernacular following the Second Vatican Council. At Pluscarden, the community was surprised when so many others dropped Latin given St John XXIII’s apostolic constitution <em>Veterum Sapientia</em> of 1962, which insisted on its use. As far as the monks of Pluscarden were concerned, they were doing what they had been told to do.
Today, the Pluscarden community numbers 16 when at full strength – a healthy number in terms of viability, though the average age is steadily rising despite two relatively recent arrivals in their thirties – one from Poland and one from Nigeria. Given the community’s fidelity to the Latin hours, it is somewhat surprising that Pluscarden seems not to have attracted much of a share of the interest in the older forms of liturgical worship that has electrified so many young people of late. Not far away, at Papa Stronsay, one of the Orkney Islands, the traditionalist Transalpine Redemptorists are having to build new accommodation to house their young postulants – almost all of whom are in their twenties when they arrive.
Talking to others at Pluscarden, I gathered that there is openness to the idea of celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass, even if there is genuine love for the Latin <em>novus ordo</em> as well. Yet you don’t have to be a committed traditionalist in liturgical matters to think that it would be wonderful if Pluscarden did start to offer Mass in the Extraordinary Form. The thought of that resurrected monk worshipping at the altar in a familiar place with a recognisable rite – albeit not an identical one – might seem to put the final piece of the puzzle of restoration in its place.
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<em>Photos (from top): Pluscarden Abbey; a monk tending the garden; dinner in the refectory. (Credit iStock</em>.)
<em>Alexander Norman is the author of </em>Captain de Havilland’s Moth<em> (Abacus, 2025).</em>
<strong><strong>This article appears in the June 2025 edition of the <em>Catholic Herald</em>. To subscribe to our thought-provoking magazine and have independent, high-calibre and counter-cultural Catholic journalism delivered to your door anywhere in the world click <a href="https://thecatholicherald.com/subscribe/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">HERE</mark></a></strong></strong>.
