Crossraguel Abbey

Duncan of Carrick, who later became Earl of Carrick, founded the abbey in the early 1200s. The monks who served here over four centuries were of the Cluniac order, named after the French abbey of Cluny. Paisley and Crossraguel were Scotland’s only Cluniac monasteries.

The site of the abbey may have been an ancient holy place, as the name Crossraguel probably means ‘the cross of Raighail’. Raighail was an Irish saint, usually identified with St Regulus or St Rule, whose shrine was at St Andrews.

Today visitors can marvel at the abbey’s completeness. The monks’ church, cloister, chapter house and even the doocot all still remain. The choir has some fine 15th-century architectural details to admire. In the chapter house, the simple benches where the monks once sat are still in place, along with and ornate, arched seat used by the abbot. You can peek inside the tiny, two-roomed dwellings beyond the cloister where aged and infirm monks lived in the 1400s.