Pluscarden – Chant in the Glen and a Pictish Stone at Forres
A few hours.
The route
A quiet morning in Moray, from a glen where monks still sing their prayers in Latin chant to the great Pictish cross-slab at the edge of Forres.
Lunch is on the town's High Street.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is Callie Bothy in Pluscarden. Sleeps 2; next free Fri 30 Oct to Mon 2 Nov.
The day
Pluscarden
A morning in the glen of the Black Burn at Pluscarden, with the abbey church, its exhibition and perhaps the sung Mass. Then it's over to Forres for a Pictish stone carved with a battle, and lunch in the middle of the town.
Pluscarden Abbey
An attraction
Park at the East Gate and walk up the drive; the large car park has sheltered picnic tables and toilets, and there's accessible parking by the abbey itself. Alexander II founded the priory in 1230, and after the Reformation it fell into ruin, until Benedictine monks from Prinknash Abbey in Gloucestershire held their first Mass in its roofless church in 1948. The community has been restoring it ever since, and the abbey calls itself the only medieval monastery in Britain still used for its first purpose. Go in by the north transept, under the great rose window, and look for traces of 15th-century fresco round the chancel arch. Parts of the abbey and its grounds are open to visitors, with an exhibition on the abbey and its community, and a small shop. The monks sing the daily Mass and the offices in Latin, in Gregorian chant, and visitors are welcome at any of them: Mass is at 9am on weekdays, and on Sundays at 8am in English and 10am in Latin. Cameras are allowed, used discreetly.
About 15 min by car
Sueno’s Stone
An attraction
Sueno's Stone stands on the north-east edge of Forres, on a raised bank beside a cut-off stretch of the old road to Findhorn, with parking at the stone or close by. At over six metres, it's the tallest carved standing stone in Scotland, set up some time between about 850 and 950. Since the early 1990s it has stood in a case of armoured glass to keep the weather off it. One face carries a tall ring-headed cross filled with knotwork. The other tells a battle in panels from top to bottom, with ranks of horsemen, foot soldiers fighting, and the beheaded dead. Nobody knows for sure which battle it was, and boards beside the stone set out the main ideas.
Cafe 1496
Lunch
Lunch is in the middle of the town at Cafe 1496, at 79 High Street. Forres's council car parks are free, the High Street car park among them. Breakfast is served all day, so eggs benedict or pancakes make as good a lunch as the Cullen skink, the toasties or a cheeseburger, and the coffee is roasted locally. Food is served until 3pm, and to book a table, ring the café on 01309 358120.
If it rains
The abbey church, its exhibition and the café are indoors; the stone stands in the open, in its glass case.
Where to stay
Photograph by edith stuart via Google