The Secret of Scalan
In the remote depths of Glenlivet, Catholics fought to protect their faith
Kenny MacAskill shares the story of Scalan, the hidden Catholic seminary in Glenlivet
IT’S often said that aspects of history are hidden by those who write it, but there’s one tale where that was very literally the case. Anyone walking in the countryside of Glenlivet will see signposts for Scalan. There you will be enchanted by the beauty of the setting and enlightened by the story narrated in the Old College there, which is still lovingly maintained.
It’s a tale of oppression and persecution, going back to the Reformation. Arthur Herman in his book, How the Scots Invented the Modern World claimed that this seismic event forged a people literate enough to read the word of God. The consequence being that when emigrant Scots landed on New World shores, the road to success lay open to them.
But there is a darker side to the Reformation, as Catholics, and those ministering to them, suffered.
It wasn’t just prejudice they faced, but laws which worked against them. An Act of 1700 from the old Scots parliament specifically outlawed Catholic teaching, as well as imposing severe restrictions on those who still adhered to the Old Faith, as it was called.
These rulings were driven as much by fear of the Jacobite cause and the restoration of a Catholic Monarch, as by religious bigotry. It was from that oppression that this college at Scalan emerged.
But the genesis of the college goes back even further. Around 1700, it is thought there were only around 20,000 practising Catholics left in Scotland, the new Protestant faith having swept the land.
They lived largely in remote areas such as Glenlivet, but also in the southern Western Isles, other patches of north east Scotland, and in western Highland communities such as Morar.
The challenges of having such widespread parishes
were considerable, but obtaining priests to cover them in the first place was even more difficult. Young men had to be sent abroad for training, before being secreted back to tend to their parishes.
Accordingly, steps were taken to train new priests in Scotland and one such effort was made in Glenlivet in 1699. However, when the priest moved to another parish, it ended, and with the absence of a dedicated site there was little option but to close.
Eventually in 1714, after many years of effort and searching, Bishop James Gordon established a seminary on an island in Loch Morar. Its location both in a Catholic community and on a secure site allowed for six pupils to be tutored by Father George Innes.
But this did not last. Just two years later, with the fall-out from the 1715 Jacobite Rising, fears of punishment were mounting and it closed down.
Yet hope still burned and that same commitment which saw faith retained, brought about the reopening of the seminary, though this time in Glenlivet.
As Father Innes had fled the island in Loch Morar, the parish priest in Glenlivet had also moved up the glen and further away from government soldiers. That brought him to Scalan, land then used as shieling by local farmers. Initially using the summer huts, Father Innes then got permission to build a house on the west bank of the Crombie burn.
Bishop Gordon decided that the lands adjacent could house a seminary and in 1717 the local priest was transferred, and Father Innes and his boys moved in.
Glenlivet lay on the Catholic Duke of Gordon’s lands, which was advantageous, but it was still far from an easy
“Hope retained” still burned to see faith
task. The area’s beautiful winters can be cold and the snow was heavy and lay for a long time.
A community existed with around five families and accommodation was spartan – and the life of a seminarian likewise. Rules drawn up in 1722 were strict and piety was expected. Study and prayer dominated the long and arduous days.
Their limited leisure time was spent in the burn or on the hills. Those who passed through were known as “heather priests” having been trained in Scotland.
Danger still threatened though, as Hanoverian troops raided the seminary in 1726 and again two years later. Worse was to follow the Battle of Culloden in 1745, when marauding troops burned the building down after a decisive defeat of the Jacobites.
Forewarned of the coming danger, Father Duthie managed to remove his scholars, books and furniture but had to watch the building collapse before fleeing abroad.
His successor, John Geddes, became master, and in 1767 he started building the college that stands today. Within a few years, under the overall leadership of Bishop George Hay, they had built a classroom, dormitory, masters’ room and a chapel. Further improvements such as extensions and outhouses then followed.
A convert to the faith, Bishop Hay had tended the Jacobite wounded at Prestonpans as a youth and had been imprisoned. On his release he studied for the priesthood at Scots College in Rome, and became a Bishop in 1769.
Gradually, pressures on the Catholic faith eased, but it was still hard with only 45,000 adherents in Scotland by the end of the 18th century.
The need for more space soon became pressing and resulted in Bishop Hay moving the seminary in 1799 to Aquhorthies, near Inverurie, before moving to Blairs College in Deeside in 1829.
The original college still stands at Scalan to tell the tale of those who kept themselves hidden to keep the Old Faith alive.
“Study days” and prayer dominated the