BY Peter Diamond | May 3 | 
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Media’s ‘secret seminary restoration’ reports are ‘utter nonsense’
Media reports that a ‘secret priest training site in Moray is to be restored,’ have been branded ‘utter nonsense’ by the priest president of the association tasked with the site’s preservation.
Fr Michael Briody, parish priest of St Michael’s Church in Moodiesburn, this week told the SCO that reports by the BBC and multiple national newspapers ‘are simply not true and frankly inaccurate.’
Scalan
Last week a number of outlets claimed that Scalan, an ancient Highland seminary used for training priests at a time when practising Catholicism was illegal, was to be restored.
However, Fr Briody, president of Scalan Association, said that regeneration work by the Cairngorms National Park would focus on land and outbuildings around Scalan but not the seminary itself.
“We are responsible ‘up to the eaves’ of the seminary building in our contract with the Crown Estate,” he said.
“The idea that they are about to restore a secret seminary is absolute nonsense.
“The buildings that will feature some restoration are within the curtilage of Scalan land but that is all—they are nothing to do with the seminary.
“The BBC, The Times and The Scotsman could all have saved themselves a bit of embarrassment by Googling ‘Scalan Association’ and contacting us.”
History
Scalan was originally built in 1767 in the guise of a farmhouse when Catholicism was outlawed.
On June 16 this year, Catholics are encouraged to attend the annual Scalan Mass which will coincide with the 250th anniversary of Bishop George Hay’s consecration in the upstairs chapel of Scalan.
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