The Old School & Clock Tower (The college wing)

This building was the heart of the school, containing many of the classrooms and two large dormitories on the top floor. Sadly, some of the beautiful timbers, in the classrooms, have been covered over with plasterboard as part of the refurbishments health and Safety reasons.

The clock was loved by the villagers, but hated by anyone who had to stay in the Abbey as it struck, extremely noisily, every quarter of an hour day and night.

On one occasion, Fr Benedict woke up because he hadn’t heard the clock strike. A visiting monk who knew a little about clock mechanisms had found that he couldn’t sleep owing to the incessant racket so he made his way into the clock tower and put a wooden jamb into the appropriate part of the mechanism, preventing it from striking at all.

Fr Benedict found the sabotage at four o’clock the next morning and removed the offending wedge, at which point the clock began striking all the quarters and hours from ten the previous night until it caught up, waking all the guests and monks and half the village too!

”Fort Augustus Abbey Clock Tower and Original Bastion Wall

In the basements of this wing were the boys’ showers and these were also part of the basement area of the old fort. This is covered in the section entitled “Brothers’ Wing”.

When entering the old school towards the cloisters from the clock tower entrance there is a change of levels down to the left and this is where the boys’ refectory was housed. This later became the Abbot’s Table Restaurant within the Enterprises, serving quality fast food during the day and providing a gourmet experience in the evenings.