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Remains of an Abbey, founded by David I to be a daughter house for the Cistercian monks from Melrose in 1151. It was visited by Edward I in 1303, and by Edward II in 1336. Abbot James Guthry died in 1482, and Abbot James Galbreth died 1491. His successor William Culross, who died 1504, appointed Thomas Crystall to be his successor in 1499 because of deteriorating health. Robert Reid then became abbot in 1526. Over the centuries, the abbey was greatly added to, especially by Abbot Robert Reid, who was later to become bishop of Orkney. The church consisted of a nave, choir and transepts with a tower, erected by Abbot Guthry, over the crossing. Under Reid, the abbey lands were erected into a burgh of barony. Amongst many improvements, he built a spacious fire proof library and added many new volumes to it. He also erected the Abbot's House in 1537 at the south end of the east range. He had many altarpieces painted by Andrew Bairhum, a celebrated painter, and brought over a gardener, William Lubias, from Flanders who introduced many improvements in fruit tree cultivation. When Bishop Reid died in 1558, he was succeeded by his nephew Walter Reid, who was the last Abbot at the Abbey. By him a great part of the abbey lands were alienated. The Abbey is thought to have been reasonably entire until 1650, although the tower is thought to have fallen in circa 1574. In 1601 it was erected into a temporal lordship. The owners, the Brodies of Lethen, sold much of the stonework for the building of Cromwell's fort at Inverness in 1651-2. By 1842, the Abbey was being used as a source of stone for the houses and granaries in the area. Only fragments of the abbey now remain. These are the outline of the cloister, and part of the south wall of the nave and part of the south transept of the church still stand. The remains of the Abbot's House stand to the south of the abbey. This now consists of the east wall and the circular stair tower at the southeast angle. Over the doorway is a panel with an ogee arched head containing the shield of Abbot Reid, a stag's head, his initials and crosier. The site is now a graveyard, consisting mainly of 18th and 19th century tombstones, and also mid 19th century builds containing memorials to the Grant Peterkin family of Grange Hall (NJ06SE0084) and Invererne. During the early part of World War Two a special plot was set aside for war burials of service personnel from RAF Kinloss and all but three of the WWII war graves are within this plot. A Cross of Sacrifice stands at the far end of the plot. Elsewhere in the burial ground there is one 1914-18 war grave. The remains were badly vandalised in the 1980s, but after considerable work the Abbey has now been cleaned up and consolidated. Material overlying the barrel vault of the chapel was carried out in 1992, as the curved surface had been filled with loose sandy rubble. In 1995, during the course of excavating the concrete screeds on the uppermost vaults of the eastern cloistral range and the south transept chapel, slabs and steps were revealed indicating the remains of the original flagged flooring. Supervision of rubble clearance at the Abbot's House, as part of consolidation work, was carried out in February 1996. Access to the site was cleared, and all architectural stone was isolated for future reuse. A reredorter drain was further exposed, and structural evidence confirming that the Abbot's House is a later addition to the Abbey was found. A slight deviation in the North wall of the Abbot's House was also uncovered at the point where two vaults meet. This provided further evidence that there was an earlier wall incorporated into the gable of the Abbot's House. A watching brief was carried out by Kirkdale Archaeology in September 1997 during the opening of a new grave in the family plot of the Dunbar Naismith family. The family burial plot lies against the south side of the south cloister wall, believed to be part of the original Abbey. The plot is defined by three ashlar walls, forming a rectangular area 5.8 m north-south by 4.6 m east-west, and abutting the south side of the south cloister wall. It is accessed via an original arch in the latter. Before the most recent internment, the plot held three graves against its south wall, and a further two in the same grave against the west wall, running east-west. The new grave was located in the northeast corner, against the burial plot at the east wall and the south cloister wall. Excavation to the depth of 1.75 m revealed the brick lining of the east-west grave, constructed in 1905, and the ashlar foundations of the plot boundary wall, also to the full depth of the trench. No monastic material was recovered, and the depth of the founds of the boundary wall, coupled with the density and depth of the graves within the plot, would suggest that any monastic remains will have been removed in the 19th century, when the family plot was first laid out. Fabric Inspection carried out over the upstanding remains in 2002 by LDN Architects. Major conservation work on the main building of the abbey was carried out in 2008. The gravestones in the abbey grounds were surveyed by the Moray Burial Ground Research Group in 2009-10. A watching brief was carried out by Murray Archaeological Services in 2006 during the installation of interpretation panels at the Abbey. Three small trenches, 700 mm square and circa 200 mm deep, were excavated, in one of the squares, mortared stonework was revealed. This trench was extended, to 1200 mm x 700 mm, so as to avoid damage to the stonework. The stonework, possibly the setting of a grave, was then recorded, left undisturbed and re-covered. Ivy was cleared from the Abbot's House in May 2012. A search (2012) of the heap of masonry situated behind the modern day graveyard boundary wall separating the Abbot's House from the main abbey complex recovered 32 carved stones, of medieval and post-medieval date. Geophysical (resistivity) survey was carried out by Orca Geophysics in 2012 over two small areas amongst the ruins of Kinloss Abbey, Moray, as part of the Rekindle Kinloss community project. The results in Area 1, within the Abbots’ House are on a different orientation than the extant remains which again makes interpretation difficult. These anomalies could represent the presence of internal features or may merely be large spreads of rubble remaining within the limits of the building. One extremely distinctive area of high resistivity seems most likely to relate to an extension of the foundations of the outer cloister wall. Possible wall lines in Area 2 are likely to relate to the location of the Chapter House and to Cloister Walls. A watching brief and limited excavation and recording were carried out by Highland Archaeology Services in December 2019 and February/March 2020 during stabilisation works. The excavation work under two surviving vaults on the west side of the Abbot's House revealed mixed modern disturbed material with some historic debris. A single piece of Scottish Redware ceramic dating between the 12th and 15th centuries was recovered. Some quality carved stone was noted amongst tumbled stones that were moved during the works. Monumental inscriptions within the burial ground were recorded by the Moray Burial Ground Research Group in 2009 - 2010.
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Historic Environment Records (HER) 
Moray
HER -
NJ06SE0002 - KINLOSS ABBEY