Sancta Maria Abbey, Nunraw

Sancta Maria Abbey stands at the foot of the Lammermuir Hills in East Lothian. It is a working Trappist monastery, the first Cistercian house founded in Scotland since the Reformation. The estate was originally called White Castle after an early hill-fort on the land. The modern buildings were constructed between 1952 and 1970 by architect Peter Rice Whiston. The abbey church was never completed, leaving the complex unfinished. The monastery’s Category A listing recognises it as a rare 20th-century monastic complex in Britain. The abbey traces its roots to the Cistercian Nuns of Haddington, founded by Ada de Warenne soon after Bernard of Clairvaux’s death. Nunraw began as a grange of that convent, later becoming known as ‘Nun’s Row’. Dom Columban Mulcahy served as the first Lord Abbot from 1948 to 1969. Dom Donald McGlynn, Abbot-emeritus, held an honorary chieftaincy among the Igbo people in Nigeria. The current Lord Abbot, Dom Mark Caira, will serve until 2026. Visitors find a quiet monastery set against the rolling Lammermuir Hills. The stone buildings, designed by Whiston, form a contemplative complex. The abbey remains a place of prayer and work for the Trappist monks. Its unfinished church adds to the sense of ongoing devotion. The surrounding estate includes traces of the earlier hill-fort and nuns’ grange. The landscape offers peaceful walks beneath the hills.