The first monks came from Melrose Abbey. Kinloss received its Papal Bull from Pope Alexander III in 1174 and came under the protection of the Bishop of Moray in 1187. The abbey's wealth grew substantially when Robert the Bruce granted it salmon fishing rights on the River Findhorn in 1312 -- rights subsequently renewed by James I and James IV. Salmon was currency in medieval Scotland, and control of a productive river stretch meant reliable income for centuries. The abbey attracted royal visitors of considerable consequence: Edward I of England stayed in 1303, Edward III in 1336, and Mary, Queen of Scots in 1562.

Of the twenty-four abbots who governed Kinloss, the most remarkable was Robert Reid. He introduced organised education, built a fireproof library stocked with volumes from his personal collection, and in 1537 erected a new abbot's house. Reid became Bishop of Orkney in 1541, but his most lasting contribution came after death: his will bequeathed 8,000 merks "for to big ane college" in Edinburgh. That bequest helped establish what became the University of Edinburgh. While studying in Paris, Reid had befriended John Ferrerius, an Italian scholar from the Piedmont whom he invited to Kinloss in 1528 as an educator. Ferrerius wrote a detailed account of the abbey's abbots and their works, though most of his manuscripts have not survived.

The abbey's decline tracked the broader upheaval of the Scottish Reformation. Walter Reid, the last pre-Reformation abbot, watched as much of the monastic lands were alienated to the Crown. Edward Bruce, appointed commendator after the Reformation, received some of the abbey's lands and fishing rights, becoming Lord Bruce of Kinloss. The final indignity came in 1645 when the remaining buildings were conveyed to Alexander Brodie of Lethen, who sold the materials for construction of Oliver Cromwell's citadel at Inverness. The stones of a house built for contemplation found their second career in a fortress built for conquest.

Few of the monastic buildings remain standing today. The ruins sit within a graveyard owned by the local authority, accessible at all times and designated a scheduled monument. The site lies close to the former RAF Kinloss, later Kinloss Barracks -- a military installation whose presence would have struck the Cistercian founders as deeply ironic. Walking among the fragmentary walls, it takes imagination to reconstruct the abbey that once stood here: a community of white-robed monks, their days structured by prayer and labour, growing wealthy from salmon and royal favour in the forests of Moray. The deer that led David I to this clearing started something that lasted five centuries before the Reformation and Cromwell between them finished it off.