BILL McALLISTER: How an order of friars shaped they early years of Inverness
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THEY flitted through Inverness for some 300 years, mysterious figures in their dark robes and hoods, pioneering education before their era was brought to an end.
The Black Friars, from the Dominican teaching order, had a priory stretching from what is now Chapel Street to the riverside. Yet all that remains of their presence is a six-feet high pillar which can still be seen in the old cemetery in Friars Street.
A 1240 AD parchment refers to King Alexander II having granted them land stretching from the riverside to what is now Chapel Street.
The friars were also given land at what is now Glebe Street and Waterloo Place, along with what is described as “the Mill of Kessock”. In addition, the king gave them Friars Shott – between the Waterfront Bar and the Old High – where fishermen in small cobles netted salmon. The Black Friars’ foothold extended beyond Inverness, with the grant of land in the Black Isle and one of the Orkney islands.
Alexander, who also had a wooden cross erected in the firth between Inverness and North Kessock, was committed to introducing other religious orders to the area. He founded Valliscaulian priories in Beauly and at Pluscarden, near Elgin, while a further order was allowed to open in Fearn.
Robert the Bruce came to Inverness in 1312 to meet King Magnus of Norway, who signed over the Western Isles to the Scottish throne, and it is surmised that the two monarchs stayed in the priory during their visit.
The following year, The Bruce committed to donating ten Scots pounds a year to the priory.
A dispute between the Bishop of Moray and the Abbot of Arbroath led to the latter sending a force which set fire to the Inverness premises in 1372, with the loss of precious documents and charters.
There is also a tradition of Grey Friars having a presence in Inverness, operating alongside the Black Friars, hence the Greyfriars Cemetery name. Other scholars cast doubt on this, with a claim the misunderstanding stemmed from the friars wearing white robes within the priory and black ones outside in the community.
The Black Friars had a major influence in the development of the burgh, opening their pioneering school at the junction of Chapel Street and Friars Lane, with the sons of leading business people and landowners being enrolled to secure an education.
This school continued for three centuries until being closed in the wake of the Reformation. It was the trailblazer for what became Inverness Royal Academy.
In 1538, Thomas Stevenson, prior of the friary, won a court action preventing the town council from snatching the fishing rights on the Ness, but the pressure was on.
In 1559, fearing for the safety of their valuables, the friars handed over gold and silver chalices and other valuables to Provost George Cuthbert and the bailies of Inverness for safe keeping, receiving a signed guarantee the articles would be returned on demand.
But when Cuthbert died, the council in 1561 requested the chalices for its own use. John Cuthbert, the former provost’s son, insisted there was no sign of them on family property. They were never retrieved and the suspicion was that Cuthbert had sold them.
Another leading family member, William Cuthbert, first leased then acquired ownership of the priory lands from the council, whose town clerk William Cumming promptly snaffled the monks’ Wester Kessock mill.
Four monks who accepted the Reformation were awarded pensions and the era of the Black Friars was over. In 1653 the priory ruins were sold to Oliver Cromwell’s army for the building of his Citadel. After Cromwell’s fall, stones from the Citadel were used to build the Town House, so part of the priory remains there! The sandstone column in Greyfriars cemetery is the final relic, along with a faded effigy of a knight, thought to be Royal lieutenant the Earl of Mar, buried in the priory in 1435.
Legend tells of a dark figure haunting the graveyard, the last of Inverness’s Black Friars.
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