Publication Account

Date 1978

Event ID 1018036

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018036

A house of Dominican Friars had been established in Montrose by 1275 but the friary was destroyed in the fourteenth century and the convent afterwards abandoned. The house was re-founded in 1516 by Patrick Painter, Abbot of Cambuskenneth and in 1518 the friars moved into the town's hospital. A charter of May 1524 relates that the king had ordered the return of the friars to their former house, as the situation of the hospital in the street gave rise to the disturbance of the friars' services and devotions (Cowan and Easson, 1976, 119). The Dominicans, however, apparently retained the hospital building until the Reformation. In 1559 a letter from Mary and Francis II approved the ejection of the friars and ordered the restoration of the hospital (Cowan, 1976, 119). In the reign of James VI the revenues and other properties of the Dominicans were granted to the burgh of Montrose (Cowan, 1976, 119). The site of the friary is not definitely known. Pococke relates that he was shown the site to the north of the town in Montrose Muir 'where foundations of buildings have been discovered' (Kemp, 1887, 213) while Jervise said that it stood on the links of Montrose.

Information from ‘Historic Montrose: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1978).