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SCALAN: The Forbidden College,
~John Watts

Scalan was a small, clandestine community set up in the Braes of Glenlivet in 1717 for the training of Catholic priests. At this time the practice of the Catholic religion was illegal and theoretically punishable by deportation.   Scalan nevertheless remained in existence until 1799, and was finally closed by the Church itself when the repeal of the Penal Laws made it feasible to set up a larger and more visible seminary.

  This detailed, chronological account of Scalan is brought to life by the often vivid personalities who shaped Scalan's life and character. The experience of this small community encapsulates a whole range of issues, secular and religious, relating to eighteenth-century Scotland, including mainstream education, syllabi and libraries; domestic, agricultural and architectural conditions; the Famines of the '70s and '80s; tensions between Highland and Lowland Church; the Penal Laws, and late eighteenth- century developments of concepts of rights, use of law and freedom of conscience.

 

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