Isle of May Priory

Isle of May Priory.

The Isle of May Priory was a monastery and community of Benedictine monks established for 9 monks of Reading Abbey on the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth, Scotland, in 1153, under the patronage of David I of Scotland. The priory passed into the control of St Andrews Cathedral Priory in the later 13th century, and in 1318 the community relocated to Pittenweem Priory on the Fife coast.

The upstanding and excavated remains of the priory were listed as a scheduled monument in 1958.^[1]^[2]

Royal pilgrims[]

Mary of Guelders, bride of James II, visited the island and the shrine of St Adrian in June 1449, according to Mathieu d'Escouchy.^[3]^[4] On 24 August 1539, Mary of Guise and James V made a pilgrimage to the Isle of May. They took three ships, the Unicorn, the Little Unicorn, and the Mary Willoughby.^[5] It was believed that a visit to the shrine of St Adrian could help a woman become pregnant.^[6]

Cowan, Ian B. & Easson, David E., Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland With an Appendix on the Houses in the Isle of Man, Second Edition, (London, 1976), pp. 59–60, 94-5
Watt, D.E.R. & Shead, N.F. (eds.), The Heads of Religious Houses in Scotland from the 12th to the 16th Centuries, The Scottish Records Society, New Series, Volume 24, (Edinburgh, 2001), pp. 143–9

^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Isle Of May, St Adrian's Chapel (57873)". Canmore.
^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Isle of May Priory (SM838)". Retrieved 5 January 2021.
^ Christine McGladdery, James II (John Donald: Edinburgh, 1990), p. 45.
^ G. Du Fresne de Beaucourt, Chronique de Mathieu d'Escouchy: 1444-1452, vol. 1 (Paris, 1863), pp. 177-8
^ Henry Ellis, 'Household Book of James the Fifth', Archaeologia, vol. 22 (London, 1829), p. 9.
^ Marguerite Wood, Foreign Correspondence: Balcarres Papers, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1923), p. 79.

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