- Location: B9113, Forfar DD8 2SZ
- Opening times: 9.30am – 5.00pm April to September; 10.00am – 4.00pm October to March
- Entry: Free
- Access: Limited onsite parking (free).
Some of the brown signs I have bagged, such as Linlithgow Palace and the Crawick Multiverse, are places I set out to visit, while others, for example the Clava Cairns and Neptune’s Staircase, are sites I chanced upon along the way. Restenneth Priory falls into this latter category, as I stumbled upon its brown sign while driving around the Forfar area following my trip to Glamis Castle.
The British landscape is littered with the ruins of medieval abbeys and priories, once mighty centres of religion and education left to ruin following the double whammy of the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the Reformation. When measured against lofty Lindisfarne Priory or Arbroath Abbey, Restenneth might seem comparatively lowly, but a couple of events demonstrate that it was once a significant site. Alexander I transferred the Annals of Iona here c.1100CE to safeguard them from the Vikings, and Robert the Bruce buried his infant son John, the twin of the future David II, at Restenneth sometime around 1326. As is often the case, the priory is believed to have been built on an earlier sacred site. Tradition states that a church, possibly dedicated to St. Peter, was built here for the Pictish king Necthán mac Der Ilei in 710, although no archaeological investigations have ever been carried out to prove whether or not this is the case.
The priory’s most striking feature is its remarkably intact tower, which may lead one to reasonably assume it was a later addition. In fact, it is the oldest surviving part of the complex, being built in the twelfth century, although the octagonal spire is a fifteenth century addition. The rest of the priory hasn’t weathered as well, much of it being little more than a footprint, but perhaps the most surprising difference between its monastic life and now is the absence of a loch. According to an information board, Restenneth Priory once sat on the shores of Loch Restenneth – the artist’s impression actually has it on an island in the loch – but the waters were drained in the eighteenth century to obtain marl, an earthy deposit enriched with calcium carbonate, for fertiliser.
Destination or Diversion?
As can be seen in the photographs, Restenneth Priory is a small ruin. In its lifetime it was never seen as anything other than an outpost of Jedburgh Abbey, and today it can’t be seen as anything other than a diversion.
