Founded in 1946 by monks from Mount St. Joseph Abbey, Roscrea, Ireland, and consecrated as an Abbey in 1948, it nestles at the foot of the Lammermuir Hills on the southern edge of East Lothian.

The estate of the abbey is technically called White Castle after an early hill-fort on the land.

Originally owned by the Cistercian Nuns of Haddington, the area that they settled becoming known as Nunraw (lit.

The Nunnery of Haddington was founded by Ada de Warenne, Countess of Huntingdon and daughter of the Earl of Surrey, soon after the death of Bernard of Clairvaux, and the small evidence that is available suggests that Nunraw was a grange of that convent.

The buildings are Category A listed as "a rare example of a purpose-built monastic abbey to be built in Britain in the 20th century".