Kinloss Abbey - Conservation Project

Kinloss Abbey is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and Grade A Listed Building of considerable significance in the context of North East Scotland. The Abbey was founded in 1150 by King David I and was colonised by Cistercian monks. The Abbey has had an interesting and colourful history and for 400 years was extended and modified many times. The reformation of Parliament in 1560 finally saw the end of Kinloss Abbey and the ruins were sold in 1645 to Alexander Brodie of Lethen, who sold the stone in 1650 for the construction of the Citadel in Inverness.

A programme of ivy clearance was conducted by Moray District Council completing the work in 1995. Some conservation works were carried out by the Moray District Council, under the guidance of Historic Scotland, to the remains of the south transept between 1991 and 1995. The remaining standing remains were surveyed in 1995 by the Royal Commission.

Over the coming years it is hoped to conduct a series of projects at Kinloss Abbey to help improve the public awareness of the Abbey and to conserve the Abbey ruins for the coming generations. This work will be a slow but professional process involving a large amount of funding from various organisations. For various reasons it has been decided to split the work into a series of Projects each with a definitive end-state.

Project One - Main Abbey - The main Abbey area has significant heritage value and requires action in three areas - Conserve and enhance the remains of the Abbey through a programme of conservation work; Raise the profile of the Abbey locally to instill a sense of ownership and care for the Abbey; Increase accessibility to and a greater understanding of Kinloss Abbey through promotion, signage and interpretation. This project has just been completed. The work has been carried out by Laing Traditional Masonry with financial assistance from Moray Council, HIMoray and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Project Two - Abbot's House - Clear ivy and other undergrowth to enable full survey and assessment then carry out a full conservation of the Abbots House. A feasibility study has been carried out and the Trust is in the process of reasearching possible funding.

Project Three - Graveyard - A team of volunteers have removed most of the ivy from the table graves. There is currently a project by The Moray Burial Ground Research Group to conduct a full graveyard survey, and conserve the damaged grave stones.