Oronsay Priory
Oronsay Priory
Oronsay Priory is the ruined Augustinian monastery on the island of Oronsay in the Inner Hebrides, a Category A listed building and scheduled monument founded in the fourteenth century by John of Islay, Lord of the Isles, and dedicated to St Columba.
- Location
- Oronsay, Western Isles
- Country
- Scotland
- County
- Western Isles
- City / town
- Oronsay
- Address
- Island, Oronsay, Western Isles, PA61 7YS
- Postcode
- PA61 7YS
- Built
- Founded 1325–53; church, cloister and conventual buildings into the early 1500s
- Denomination
- Other
- Dedication
- Columba
- Parish
- Colonsay and Oronsay
- Grade
- Category A
- Style
- Late medieval Augustinian priory ruins
- Opening hours
- Always accessible.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas
Overview
Historic Environment Scotland schedules Oronsay Priory and Cross (SM287) as the ruins of an Augustinian priory founded by John I, Lord of the Isles, sometime between 1325 and 1353, with later works including a church, cloister, conventual buildings, prior’s house and burial aisles extending into the early 1500s, and further burial enclosures as late as the nineteenth century. The scheduling includes the free-standing cross of about 1500 south-west of the church and the collection of sculptured graveslabs, effigies and crosses in the prior’s house and enclosure. The priory is also listed at Category A (LB5086).
Wikipedia records canons regular on the island, perhaps continuing an older foundation. The house continued until at least 1560; the last known prior, Robert Lamont, was elected in 1555. Lands passed in commendam in 1561 and later to the Bishop of the Isles. Restoration and recording were carried out in 1883 by William de B. M. Galloway and again in 1927 by the Ministry of Works. The High Cross, about four metres from the church, commemorates Prior Colin (d. c.1510), with a Crucifixion on the west face and foliage on the east. The ruins are always accessible at tidal crossing from Colonsay. Scottish designations are recorded in Further Information; they cannot occupy the Historic England/Cadw list-entry field.