Deer Abbey

Not to be confused with Dear Abby.

Deer Abbey

Monastery information
Order	Cistercian
Established	1219
Disestablished	1587
Mother house	Kinloss Abbey
Diocese	Diocese of Aberdeen
Controlled churches	Deer; Foveran; Kinedward; Peterugie
People
Founder(s)	William Comyn, Earl of Buchan

Deer Abbey was a Cistercian monastery in Buchan, Scotland. It was founded by 1219 AD with the patronage William Comyn, jure uxoris Earl of Buchan, who is also buried there. There was an earlier community of Scottish monks or priests. The notitiae on the margins of the Book of Deer record grants made to the Scottish religious community in the 12th century and a claim that it was founded by Saint Columba and Saint Drostan. The old religious community was probably absorbed by the new foundation. The history of the abbey after the 1210s is obscure until the 16th century, when it was beginning to be secularized. The abbey was turned into a secular lordship for Commendator Robert Keith II (becoming Lord Altrie) in 1587.

Antiquities

Entrance sign to the modern ruins

There is considerable evidence of prehistory in the local area, most notably in the form of the Catto Long Barrow and numerous tumuli slightly to the south.

See also

• Abbot of Deer, for a list of abbots and commendators of the Cistercian monastery
• Ugie Water

Bibliography

• Ian B. Cowan and David E. Easson (1976) Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland With an Appendix on the Houses in the Isle of Man, Second Edition, London, pp. 47, 74
• D.E.R. Watt and N.F. Shead (eds.) (2001) The Heads of Religious Houses in Scotland from the 12th to the 16th Centuries, The Scottish Records Society, New Series, Volume 24, Edinburgh, pp. 54–8
• C. Michael Hogan (2008) Catto Long Barrow fieldnotes, The Modern Antiquarian