Fort Augustus Abbey School

benedictines
n.

An order of monks otherwise known as black friars.

She thought it a crow, but it turn out to be
A monk of St. Benedict croaking a text.
"Here's one of an order of cooks," said she --
"Black friars in this world, fried black in the next."
"The Devil on Earth" (London, 1712)

FORT AUGUSTUS, a village of Inverness-shire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 706. It is delightfully situated at the south-western extremity of Loch Ness, about 30 m. S.W. of Inverness, on the rivers Oich and Tarff and the Caledonian Canal. A branch line connects with Spean Bridge on the West Highland railway via Invergarry. The fort, then called Kilchumin, was built in 1716 for the purpose of keeping the Highlanders in check, and was enlarged in 1730 by General Wade. It was captured by the Jacobites in 1745, but reoccupied after the battle of Culloden, when it received its present name in honour of William Augustus, duke of Cumberland, the victorious general. The fort was used as a sanatorium until 1857, when it was bought by the 12th Lord Lovat, whose son presented it in 1876 to the English order of Benedictines. Within four years there rose upon its site a pile of stately buildings under the title of St Benedict's Abbey and school, a monastic and collegiate institution intended for the higher education of the sons of the Roman Catholic nobility and gentry. The series of buildings consists of the college, monastery, hospice and scriptorium - the four forming a quadrangle connected by beautiful cloisters. Amongst its benefactors were many Catholic Scots and English peers and gentlemen whose arms are emblazoned on the windows of the spacious refectory hall. The summit of the college tower is 110 ft. high.

On the eastern fringes of Lochaber, at the head of Loch Ness, stands the village of Fort Augustus. Following the Jacobite uprising in 1715, a fort was built on a site formerly known as Kilchumein at the southern tip of Loch Ness to house a garrison. The fort was named after King George II's son, William Augustus. William Augustus became the Duke of Cumberland & later became known throughout the highlands as 'Butcher Cumberland' after he defeated the uprising at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The Fort remained in army occupation until 1854. Thomas Alexander, the 14th Lord Lovat, bought the buildings from the government in 1867 & nine years later, his son gave them to the English Benedictines.