Pluscarden Abbey (/ˈplʌskərdən/)[1] is a Catholic Benedictine monastery in the glen of the Black Burn, six miles (ten kilometres) southwest of Elgin, Moray, Scotland.

[3] From the suggestion that plaosc or *plusc is the first element arises the possibility that the second part of the name is derived from Gaelic árd, or the Pictish equivalent of Welsh ardd, both meaning "height".

The now-defunct Valliscaulian Order was small compared to the great medieval religious houses and emerged at a time when austere monasticism had spread across Europe c.

Viard, who drew up the ascetic rules governing the Order, received consent from Pope Innocent III in 1205–6; a copy of this bull was preserved in the Chartulary of Moray.

[5] The consequential legal charter, the Ordinale, provided the exact details of the liturgy, the obligations of office bearers and the conduct of the Order.

[8] The most obvious difference in approach from the Cistercian practices would have been the separate cells for the monks – most likely a partitioned dormitory as practised by the Grandmontines[9] – and the vegetable plots where the brothers were allowed to tend their private gardens in the afternoons when not engaged in official priory duties.

He also gave the priory the earnings of mills in Pluscarden, Elgin, Dunkinedir, Molen, Forres and Dulpoten and salmon fishing rights in both the Findhorn and Spey.

[14] Contemporary chronicles from the priory do not exist however the Liber Pluscardensis is a history of Scotland which borrows heavily from the writings in the Scotichronicon and Fordun[15] and was penned in Pluscarden in 1461 at the behest of the Abbot of Dunfermline.

The document was written by a secular cleric called Maurice Buchanan but he gives no information originating from the priory's monastic establishment.

He wrote to the Bishop of Moray informing him of the hard times at the priory but that Prior Alexander (1398 – c.1417) had been elected and had been tasked with repairing the deteriorating church and living areas.

Pluscarden was chosen over Urquhart for the priory location as the buildings were more spacious and thought easier to restore and Bonally was appointed as its first Benedictine prior.

[16] However, the Abbot of Dunfermline's representative informed him that he found the priory in need of much renovation; the consequence of nearly 60 years of neglect was that vaulted roofs of the choir and crossing were in danger of collapsing.

[24] Indeed, by 1506, King James IV was able to stay at the priory and was noted as giving the masons working on the building a sum of 15 shillings for buying drink.

Dunbar died in 1560 and the community was made the responsibility of a succession of lay commendatory priors who saw to the monastic revenues and the welfare of those monks that remained.

The last monk recorded at Pluscarden was Thomas Ross who along with the commendatory prior, Alexander Seton (later to become the 1st Earl of Dunfermline), both witnessed a grant of fishings in 1586.