Stone, Silence And Song

At Pluscarden Abbey near Elgin, an ancient way of life endures

- SUSY MACAULAY

THE few miles from Elgin to Pluscarden Abbey are wooded, winding and tranquil. As you leave the hurly burly of the Aberdeen-Inverness trunk road behind, it feels like time is slowing down and you're being prompted to take deep breaths and release your stress.

The abbey, which in various forms has occupied this place for eight centuries, has a reassuring air of timelessness and a sense of peace about it.

Snatches of exquisite Gregorian chanting waft from the church. It's around 10am and the monks are at morning Mass, the third religious office of a day that began with Vigils at 4.30am, followed by Laud at 6.30am.

At set intervals throughout the day, the brothers are summoned by the abbey's bells to bring them to the church for worship. They hurry in from contemplation and prayer in their cells, or from the garden, kitchen or admin work. Quite simply, a day in the life of Pluscarden revolves around these services.

They're the comforting glue that binds the abbey's community of 17 monks together.

The day I visited, I chatted with three of Pluscarden's brethren in the window between Mass and Sext.

There must be something in the water at Pluscarden, or in monastic life itself, because Father Giles, Brother Michael and Brother Finbar are all of a certain age with hardly a wrinkle between them.