Beauly Priory

Beauly stands near the mouth of Beauly River in rich farming country, surrounded by wooded hills. It may be this fine setting that gives it its name. Tradition has it that in 1564, Mary Queen of Scots stayed overnight in Beauly and the following morning, on seeing the beautiful surroundings, is said to have exclaimed, 'C'est un beau lieu!', 'What a beautiful place!'.

The priory at Beauly was founded around 1230 by Sir John Bisset for the French Valliscaulian order of monks. This order also had houses at Ardchattan in Argyll and Pluscarden in Moray. Only the church remains now but the ruins include rare and beautiful 13^th-century trefoil windows in the south wall of the nave and a particularly striking 13^th-century doorway in the west wall.

The priory was extended and altered between the 14th and 16th centuries but fell into decay after the Reformation (1560) and the dissolution of the monasteries. In 1582 lead was stripped from the roof and by 1633 the church was noted to be 'badly decayed'. In the 1650s Cromwellian troops removed some of the stone to build the fort at Inverness.

In 1901 the north transept was partly restored as a burial aisle for the Mackenzies of Kintail. One of the family's ancestors, Sir Kenneth Mackenzie (d.1491), can be seen depicted on a recumbent stone effigy.