Location: Ardchattan Priory stands upon the north shore of Loch Etive about 4 miles (6 km) east of Connel Bridge. Just north of the Connel Bridge a Historic Environment Scotland brown road sign points east along a minor single track road towards Ardchattan Priory. Enroute you pass the much later Ardchattan Kirk. When you arrive at Ardchattan Priory Garden and Ardchattan House nothing indicates the Ardchattan Priory itself. Drive through the stone gateway sign posted to the garden, and use the parking area just inside the gates. The Priory itself is reached by walking from the car park around to the left of the later (and private) Ardchattan House and associated buildings. The surrounding 4 acre (1.6 ha) Ardchattan Garden, for which an admission charge is made, is itself well worth a visit.
Origin: Ardchattan Priory was founded in 1230-1231 by Duncan of Argyll, 2nd Chief of the Clan MacDougall near the shore of Loch Etive. Ardchattan was situated in an area already sacred to Christians. Their then 600 year old Celtic Christian site of Balmaodan had occupied the hillside about 400 yards above the shore since about 600 AD. Balmaodan was then downgraded in status and made into one of the dependency churches of the new Ardchattan Priory to help support it economically and financially. The name Ardchattan means shore of Cattan derives from the Celtic Saint Cattan though Duncan granted the priory to the ascetic Valliscaulian Order of monks of the Roman Church who dedicated it to Saint Mary and to Saint John the Baptist. Alexander II King of Scots had also recently established a monastery for this obscure order whose mother house was in the Val des Choux in Burgundy, France. Ardchattan Priory would never have had more than 20 to 30 monks at one time.
Skene’s 1854 Celtic Scotland cites the Origines Parochiales Scotiae OPR church records on pages 408-409:
“… In 1230 or 1231 the priory of Ardchattan was founded, on the opposite shore, for monks
of the order of Vallis Caulium by Dunkan mak Dougall, the head of the great family of lords of
Lorn, and like most of these foundations, had many of the older churches bestowed upon it.
The dependencies upon this priory were the churches of Balivedan, within which parish it was
situated, and which was dedicated to St. Modan; …”
The building of the Priory Church is said to have begun six years after the foundation of the Priory i.e. circa 1237. The original 13th C. church was constructed mainly with local granite, having slate “pinnings” and dressed with greenish-gray sandstone probably quarried on the island of Mull. In the 15th C. buff sandstone, possibly from a quarry in Morvern, was used in making additions.
The original church consisted of a small choir with crossing north and south transepts, with double transeptal chapels, and a narrow nave (now incorporated in the private dwelling Ardchattan House). Today only fragments of the south transept remain visible after a major reconstruction begun in the 15th C. to build the new choir. The other buildings of the Priory were ranged from a cloister on the south side of the church. A major reconstruction was partially completed during the 15th and early 16th C. when a new and much larger choir was erected with an adjacent north sacristy, and parts of the crossing north transept and nave were rebuilt. The south range of the conventual buildings was also re-modelled, a new refectory being constructed on the site of the original one. All these buildings survive today either in whole or in part.
Ardchattan Priory was dominated by the MacDougalls throughout most of its existence and by the end of the 15th C., the position of Prior was monopolized by the family. But in 1506 the last MacDougall Prior, Eugenius (Eogan), was deposed. The new Prior, Duncan MacArthur, attempted in vain to revive the zeal of the founding brethren. During these troubled years the number of monks dwindled. In 1538 there were just six monks in residence and by the Scottish Reformation in 1560 a mere three.
In 1558, during the Scottish Reformation period, John Campbell, grandson of the 2nd Earl of Argyll became Prior of Ardchattan. In 1580 he was succeeded by his son, Alexander Campbell. After the last monk had died in 1600 Alexander Campbell who was its last Prior was appointed by James VI King of Scots in 1603 as Laird of Ardchattan and was granted the charter of the Priory lands and fishings. During this time, a domestic house was built around the old nave and refectory at the west end of Ardchattan Priory. This became Alexander Campbell’s dwelling house and it was later enlarged to become today’s private Ardchattan House. During the 17th C. the Campbells of Ardchattan and Lochnell built private burial aisles for their families outside of the north and south walls of the choir respectively.
In mid-January 1645 Ardchattan Priory and its lands were spared from the terrible devastation which the Royalist army of Montrose and his ally “Colkitto” Alasdair MacDonald were visiting upon other Covenanter Campbell lands. When the Royalist army was stranded on the opposite south shore of Loch Etive, Campbell of Ardchattan agreed to furnish four boats for the forces of Montrose and “Colkitto” to come across over the loch to the Ardchattan north shore providing that Montrose would spare Ardchattan on his march northward into Benderloch. It took Montrose’s army two days and two nights to cross Loch Etive while incurring a number of drowning losses among their swimming herds of stolen Campbell cattle. Three weeks later Montrose and Colkitto MacDonald would turn back and destroy a pursuing army of Campbells and their vassals, including MacDougalls required to fight for them, at Inverlochy.
Ardchattan Priory was not as lucky in the Civil War a few years later. In February 1654, as a reprisal for the Campbell Laird of Ardchattan supporting the Earl of Glencairn’s rising against Cromwell, Cromwellian Roundhead troops from garrisons at Dunstaffnage and Dunollie under the command of Captain Mutloe attacked the now fortified Ardchattan. Three defenders were killed defending the Ardchattan House before it surrendered and others were captured along with a supply of arms and ammunition. The Roundheads then attempted to destroy the house. They also removed the roof from the adjoining chapel, destroyed ornaments and images, and then set fire to the building but the Ardchattan House survived. This is a major cause for the ruin of Ardchattan Priory visible today.
The choir and transepts of the Ardchattan Priory church continued in use as a parish church for parochial worship perhaps as late as 1700. However the structure had been damaged during the Religious Wars of the 17th C., then robbed of stone for building the domestic Ardchattan House, which incorporates parts of the ruins. In 1731 the building of a new Parish Church, now a ruin just east of Ardchattan, spelled the end of worship at Ardchattan though it remained a Parish burying ground until 1906. After the building of the 1731 Parish Church to the east, the Priory’s chapel walls were subsequently raided for building material.
Description: The Priory is surrounded by the fine Ardchattan Gardens 1.6 ha (4 acres) for which there is an admission charge. The private Ardchattan House was enlarged and re-modelled in about the middle of the 19th C. and numerous minor alternations have been carried out since, but the monastic refectory still survives as the nucleus of the present house. Thus most interesting portion of the Ardchattan Priory, the refectory and refectory pulpit are now part of the Ardchattan House private home which extends over the site of the former nave and cloister. This alcove has an arcade of two pointed arches and a ceiling vaulted with crossing and molded ribs that spring from the central, filleted pier and from the corners of each of the two bays.
The remaining portions of the choir and transepts of the Ardchattan Priory are now under the jurisdiction of Historic Environment Scotland. Displays and informational boards have been erected for the benefit of tourists.
As you enter the gate to the Ardchattan Priory site itself, the most obvious feature is a modern porch housing a line of standing grave slabs found in and around the church. Most of these date from the 1400s or early 1500s but one is much earlier, and looks to have started out as a cross slab carved in the 900s before being later reshaped to serve as a grave slab.
Another fine monument is the MacDougall Cross. This was commissioned by Prior Eogan MacDougall in 1500 and carved by John ó Brolchán, a member of a renowned family of stone carvers based on Iona. The cross shows a scene of the crucifixion on one side and the virgin and child on the other.
Ardchattan Priory comprised a small choir and crossing north and south transepts with double transeptal chapels, and a nave having a narrow north aisle. Features of the choir dating from 15th C. reconstruction that can still be seen include:
A recess in the south wall formed by three pointed arches, all under a rounded arch. There are traces of molding, foliaceous ornamentation, and a carved lion. The central recess contains a piscina.
The remains of a mural recess in the north wall holding the tomb chest of Somerled MacDougall (Prior of Ardchattan) and his family. To the right of this recess and tomb chest (now protected by a wooden box) are the remnants of a carved spray of foliage. To the left of the tomb chest, a door with a molded jamb is still in place. This door led to the sacristy.
The massive archway separating the choir from the transept is actually two arches, back to back. The arching on the transept side dates from the original church, as do a number of features in the south transeptal chapel, including the remains of two rounded pilasters and the stub of a freestanding column.
The conventual buildings were disposed round a cloister on the south side of the church, but the west range was represented only by a cloister walk and an outer retaining wall. Of the buildings of this period, there remains today the south transept with its two chapels and some fragments of the nave and crossing.
The west wall of the north transeptal chapel has a round arched window dating from the 1400s and displaying Dogtooth molding and carved foliage.
In addition to the monument stones at the entry gate, there is a notable small stone dating from the early Christian era and displaying a wheel cross in relief along with intricate braids and symbolic figures. This stone has now been removed to the display area. It was probably brought to Ardchattan from some early-Christian holy place where they would stand in a mound at the east end of the site facing the rising sun. Perhaps its origin was the ancient Balmaodan site up the hill from the Ardchattan Priory site (See entry on Balmaodan).
Ardchattan Priory is well worth a visit even for its beauty and tranquility alone.
References:
1 – Technical information has been provided by the Canmore Database of Historic Environment Scotland and their Ardchattan Priory site may be visited at: https://canmore.org.uk/site/23259/ardchattan-priory
2 – See also the Gazetteer for Scotland site Ardchattan at: http://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst8834.html
3 – Journeying in MacDougall Country by Walter M. Macdougall, Past President of the Clan MacDougall Society of North America on page 46, 47, 48, 49, 187, 192, 193, 195, 209, 211, 233, 234, 235, 241, 242, 243, 262, 265, 266 contains descriptions and notes on this site. This excellent book is available from Lulu.com with profits going to the Dunollie Preservation Fund from its book sales at http://www.lulu.com/shop/walter-macdougall/journeying-in-macdougall-country/paperback/product-2242050.html
4 – Undiscovered Scotland has a web page on this site at: http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/benderloch/ardchattanpriory/index.html
5 – An interesting web page about this site is: https://the-hazel-tree.com/2016/03/25/ardchattan-in-the-footsteps-of-st-baodan/