Beauly Priory

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.

ParkingParking not known

The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.

Parking details

Historic Scotland says parking is available in Beauly on the A862 but names no car park and publishes no charge or free statement, so the status is recorded as unknown; reviewers park around the priory on The Square. The council's Braeview Park car park is about 500 m south-west. A Highland Council public toilet stands about 80 m from the priory.

Driving pin: Historic Scotland's own pin on the priory church at the north end of The Square, 19 m from the Google listing. Historic Scotland gives journey planners only.

About

Beauly Priory is the ruined church of a little-known order of monks, in a wooded riverside setting at the north end of Beauly's square. It was one of three priories founded in Scotland in about 1230 for the Valliscaulians; Sir John Bisset invited the monks to settle beside the bends of the River Beauly. Only the church still stands: a cross-shaped building with a seven-bay nave, a three-bay choir, and a west front rebuilt in the 1500s by Abbot Robert Reid. Inside are fine funerary monuments, among them the tomb of Prior Alexander Mackenzie, who died in 1479, and the effigy of Kenneth Mackenzie in the north transept, in a burial ground of stones from the 1400s onwards. Reviewers find the red stone ruins atmospheric and peaceful, allow ten to thirty minutes, park around the square and look into the vault off the nave.

Check today’s timesSee all times

Beauly PrioryOpen at all reasonable times; an unstaffed open site, no hours published

Opening times may change at short notice.

Historic Scotland: 'Beauly Priory is free to visit and is open year-round.' No hours, closures or notices on 20 October 2026; not on Historic Scotland's closures page. The church is roofless and its nave, transepts and aisle are open.

Paths lead through the burial ground among mature trees; no toilets, cafe or shop on site, with the village's shops and a council toilet close by.

Photo: The roofless west front and nave of Beauly Priory, seen along the path through the burial ground. August Schwerdfeger, CC BY 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beauly_Priory_2017-05-26_-_1.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.