It is not known for certain who the founder was, different sources giving Alexander II of Scotland, John Byset, and both.

The French monks, along with Bisset (a nearby, recently settled landowner), had a strong enough French-speaking presence to give the location and the river the name "beau lieu" ("beautiful place") and have it pass into English.

The priory was gradually secularised, and ruled by a series of commendatory abbots.

[1] In August 1818 John Keats and his friend Charles Brown stopped at Beauly on their way to Cromarty.

Their visit produced a collaborative poem, On Some Skulls in Beauley Abbey, near Inverness, written early in August 1818 or possibly some weeks or months later.