The abbey was turned into a secular lordship for Commendator Robert Keith II (becoming Lord Altrie) in 1587.

His son, the third laird, built the 5 metres (16 ft) high enclosing wall in 1809 and used the grounds as an orchard.

The fifth laird had the site cleared and used the stones from the Abbey building to have a mausoleum constructed in which to bury his daughter when she died aged 21 years in 1851.

The property was acquired around 1926 by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aberdeen, which shortly thereafter gave custody to the Ministry of Works.

[9] The mausoleum was removed in the 1930s and parts of it were used to build an entrance; however this was undertaken without disturbing the graves of Lady Langford and Ferguson's daughter, Eliza.

There is considerable evidence of prehistory in the local area, most notably in the form of the Catto Long Barrow and numerous tumuli slightly to the south.