The above portrait is of Bishop George Hay as a much younger man than the one that has normally used on the website. It is to be found in...

The "Day Book" mentioned in the last post (front cover above) covers fifteen years (1741-56) at the College. Despite its name it does not...

When William Duthie arrived at Scalan as Master in 1741 his was the tenth appointment in the seminary’s twenty-five years to date. Raised...

Scalan shared the other hardships of the Church also. In particular, it shared its poverty. The bishops were rarely able to give it the...

In ‘normal’ years the Penal Laws were only loosely enforced. Only when the State seemed threatened – notably after the ’15 and ’45...

Scalan’s circumstances mirrored those of the Catholic Church as a whole in Scotland at this time. Its very existence as a place of...

Scalan also had a working farm attached, a bit like Blairs only on a smaller scale. As early as 1717 the first Master acquired seventeen...

From its early days Scalan accepted boys as paying ‘lay boarders’, students not planning to follow a priestly vocation but who wished the...

The bishops envisaged Scalan as an all-through College, one that would be both a Junior and a Senior seminary. It would take students...

In autumn 1716 the Master and boys moved in to their new home at Scalan. They found the turf house sturdy enough, and just about adequate...