Ardchattan Priory

Ardchattan Priory stands on the north shore of Loch Etive, near Connel, facing south with views to Ben Cruachan. It was founded about 1230 by Duncan MacDougall, Lord of Lorn and builder of Dunstaffnage Castle, for monks of the strict Valliscaulian order, whose mother house was Val des Choux in Burgundy; a carved kale leaf here recalls it. The community never numbered more than twenty and had dwindled to three by the Reformation. From 1602 the Campbells turned it into a house, still lived in by the family, whose dining room is the monks' old refectory. Historic Scotland cares for the ruins of the church, which hold grave slabs, a MacDougall tomb-chest, a piscina and Campbell burial aisles, and the MacDougall Cross of 1500, carved by John Ó Brolchán of an Irish family of carvers who also worked at Iona and one of the few West Highland carvings to name its sculptor. The ruins are free and open daily; the private garden next door charges and opens on Wednesdays only.