Pluscarden Abbey, Moray
Address
Pluscarden, Elgin IV30 8UAOverview
Pluscarden Abbey is an ancient foundation, but in its present community only dates from 1948. The buildings required an extensive programme of reconstruction and restoration, which naturally included the windows. With only a few fragments of medieval stained glass remaining, the decision was taken to fill the windows with striking contemporary designs, mostly made in the Abbey’s stained glass workshop.
The community had begun making stained glass windows on Caldey Island in the early years of the twentieth century and the craft was continued when they moved to Prinknash Abbey in Gloucestershire, and then Pluscarden in 1948. The work of the monks can be found all over Scotland and even further afield, with Dom Ninian Sloane and Br Gilbert Taylor the principal craftsmen involved.
There are also two striking windows by artists from outside the Abbey. The Marian Window, in dalle de verre, in the North Wall of the North Transept is by Sadie McLellan, 1964-67, while the traditionally leaded, St Andrew window in the Lady Chapel is by Crear McCartney, c.1957.
More information about the windows is available on the Abbey website at Pluscarden Abbey – Stained Glass
Highlight
Our Lady and Child : In the interior wall of the North Transept ChapelArtist, maker and date
Brother Gilbert, c.1960Reason for highlighting
A lovely early example in leaded glass of Brother Taylor’s work at the Abbey. It was originally exhibited at the Glasgow Vocations Exhibition 1960.
Artist/maker notes
Brother Gilbert Taylor (1916-2004) created windows at Pluscarden between 1960 and 1998 in both traditional leaded glass and dalle de verre.
Father Giles of Pluscarden Abbey remembers that “He was a very versatile artist, capable of working in very different media and styles, on equally varied subjects. He was no prima donna, and his humanity was on a level with his glass. Friendly and unassuming.”
Comments by
Iain Galbraith and Peter Hildebrand