Saturday 21st July
Highland Ordinariate Outing
to Our Lady and St Bean, Marydale
and Beauly Priory

Our Lady and St Bean’s Church, Marydale was completed, according to the date on the original drainpipes (still in place) in 1866. The architect was Joseph Hansom, who was also associated with the hansom cab. During the building works the priest, Father Colin Grant 'sold off his cows and some furniture, and all the farm things' to meet the cost of the buildings.

To get to Marydale, just after the Lovat Bridge on the A862 on the Beauly side, at the Y junction take the A831 Struy road all the way to Cannich. The last part of the road to Cannich is wide single track, but care still has to be taken. Turn left at the traffic lights in Cannich and find Our Lady and St Bean, Marydale, on the left in the middle of the village.

St Bean (also spelt Bain, Beathan, Baithene: pronounced Bãn) was the cousin of St Columba, succeeding him as Abbot of Iona. He is traditionally supposed to have evangelised Strathglass and gives his name to St. Bean’s spring, which is on the hillside across the road. The school, which opened a few years later, was very successful and numbers reduced by the clearances were boosted by Irish immigrants building the hydro-electric dams and the power station in Glen Cannich and Glen Affric.

Beauly Priory is one of three priories founded in Scotland in about 1230 for monks of the Valliscaulian order from Val-des-Choux ('Valley of the Cabbages') near Dijon in France. The name 'Beauly' comes from the French 'beau lieu' ('beautiful place') and is often said to have come from a comment made by Mary Queen of Scots during a visit in 1564, but the name actually dates back to the arrival of the French monks who set up the Priory in 1230.

Programme - Saturday 21st July 2018
10.30am   Leave from Laurel Avenue, Inverness
(Those from the north should meet at Cannich)
11.30am   Arrive at Our Lady and St Bean's Church, Marydale (in Cannich)
12 noon   Ordinariate Mass
1pm   Lunch at the Cnoc Hotel, Struy (pre-book with Fr Len)
3pm   Visit to Beauly Priory and then return homes

Saturday 8th September
Edinburgh Ordinariate Outing
to St Mary’s Parish Church and in the Lauderdale Aisle The Chapel of The Virgin Mary and the Three Kings

Founded as a Collegiate Church in 1380, and taking over one hundred years to build, St Mary’s Parish Church was largely ruined during the mid-sixteenth century Siege of Haddington. It is the longest church in Scotland and is in the early Gothic style. The Town Council repaired the Church in 1561 'frae steeple to the west end' and in the 1970s, with much fundraising and sponsorships, the full restoration of the church was finally completed.

One of St Mary’s unique features is the Lauderdale Aisle which was once the sacristy of St Mary’s. It was given to the Maitlands of Lethington as their burial aisle following the Reformation of 1560 and contains the magnificent marble effigies of John, 2nd Lord Maitland and Lord Chancellor to King James VI, who was interred with his wife in 1624. It is one of the best surviving 1600s memorials in Scotland.

The Lauderdale was restored in the 1970s by Patrick Maitland, the 17th Earl of Lauderdale, and in 1978 it was re-consecrated as a chapel dedicated to The Virgin Mary, the Christ Child and the Three Kings at an ecumenical ser­vice, never before seen in Scotland, by Bishop Alastair Haggart, Episcopalian Bishop of Edinburgh, Dr Roy Sanderson, former Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Polish Orthodox priest in Edinburgh and the Catholic Abbot of Nunraw.

In the afternoon we will hear from the late Lord Lauderdale about how the inspiration for the re-dedication came from an Anglican priest in Norfolk and a Free Church minister in Caithness in an interview recorded with him in 1998.

Programme - Saturday 8th September
10.45am  -  Meet in St Mary’s Catholic Church, Haddington
11am  -  Tour of St Mary’s Parish Church of Scotland
12 noon  -  Mass (Ordinariate Use) in the Lauderdale Aisle
1pm  -  Lunch - in the Maitlandfield House Hotel (pre-book with Fr Len)
2.30pm - In the Lauderdale Aisle - with the 17th Earl of Lauderdale
3.30pm - Evensong and Benediction

Friday 8th to Monday 10th June 2019

Ordinariate Scotland Pilgrimage and Conference
This will be our Fourth Annual Pilgrimage and Conference at the Schoenstatt Scotland Retreat and Pilgrimage Centre, the tranquil and peaceful oasis at the foot of the Campsie Fells which has now become a regular 'home from home' for the Ordinariate in Scotland. The Programme and Booking Form will be available here early in 2019.