St Andrew's College, Drygrange, located near Melrose,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, was a

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seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy ...

founded in 1953 and closed in 1986.

History

Foundation

Founded by Gordon Gray shortly after he became

Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh The Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh is the ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh. The archdiocese covers an area of 5,504 km2. The metropolitan see is in the City of Edinburgh where the archbishop's s ...

, the college was operated by the archdiocese in a large country house called Drygrange House. The house, standing north of the Leaderfoot Viaduct, included sizeable grounds bordered by the River Leader, a tributary of the

River Tweed The River Tweed, or Tweed Water ( gd, Abhainn Thuaidh, sco, Watter o Tweid, cy, Tuedd), is a river long that flows east across the Border region in Scotland and northern England. Tweed cloth derives its name from its association with the ...

Closure

The archdiocese took the decision to close the college with effect from the autumn of 1986.Staff (7 August 1987).
"Seminary Moves On"
''

Catholic Herald The ''Catholic Herald'' is a London-based Roman Catholic monthly newspaper and starting December 2014 a magazine, published in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and, formerly, the United States. It reports a total circulation of abo ...

''. Retrieved 6 March 2013. The closure was blamed by then-Archbishop Keith O'Brien, himself a former student of the seminary, on the halving of the number of new Scottish entrants to the priesthood. The remaining students were transferred to

Gillis College Gillis Centre, formerly Gillis College and founded as St Margaret's Convent and School, is a complex of buildings situated close to the city centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. The history of the site can be traced back to the 15th century. The orig ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

, the new seminary for the archdiocese,Staff (undated).
"The Gillis Centre's Past"
.

Gillis Centre Gillis Centre, formerly Gillis College and founded as St Margaret's Convent and School, is a complex of buildings situated close to the city centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. The history of the site can be traced back to the 15th century. The orig ...

. Retrieved 6 March 2013. and some 2,300 items from the college's library were deposited in the National Library of Scotland. On another analysis, the new Gillis College was the seminary of St Andrew's, transferred to a new site and renamed.Wright, David F.; Badcock, Gary David (1996). ''Disruption to Diversity: Edinburgh Divinity 1846–1996''.

T&T Clark T&T Clark is a British publishing firm which was founded in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1821 and which now exists as an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. History The firm was founded in 1821 by Thomas Clark, then aged 22 and who had a Free Church ...

. p. 253. . In 1987, the archdiocese sold the college's former buildings at Drygrange for £250,000 and they became a

nursing home A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of elderly or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as skilled nursing facility (SNF) or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms have slightly different meanings to i ...

called St Andrews Nursing Home, after going into administration it was sold and in March 2001 the new owners changed it to Grange Hall Care Home which has become (Jan 2017) one of the most successful and highest graded care homes in the Scottish Borders. In 1993, Gillis College also closed, and Chesters College, Bearsden, later renamed

Scotus College Scotus College was a seminary in Bearsden, Glasgow. It was founded in 1985 under the name of Chesters College and in 1993 was reconstituted as Scotus College. It was then the only remaining Roman Catholic seminary in Scotland. Its closure was ...

, became the national seminary for Scotland.

Notable alumni

Paul Kamuza Bakyenga Paul Kamuza Bakyenga is a Roman Catholic priest, who was the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Mbarara, since 2 January 1999. Pope Francis accepted his resignation on 25 April 2020 and appointed Auxiliary Bishop Lambert Bainomugisha as the Arc ...

, Archbishop of Mbarara *

Dennis Canavan Dennis Andrew Canavan (born 8 August 1942) is a Scottish politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Falkirk West from 1974 to 2000 (known as West Stirlingshire from 1974 to 1983), first as a member of the Labour Party, and then as an I ...

, Scottish politician * Bishop

Vincent Logan Vincent Paul Logan (30 June 1941 – 14 January 2021) was the ninth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dunkeld, which was restored (with boundaries differing from those of the pre-Reformation diocese) by Pope Leo XIII on 4 March 1878. U ...

* Cardinal Keith O'Brien * Bishop

Stephen Robson Stephen Robson (born 1 April 1951) is a prelate of the Catholic Church. , he is the Bishop Emeritus of Dunkeld. From 2012 to 2014 he was auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh. Early life Stephen Robson was born in C ...

Bishop Stephen Robson
at dunkelddiocese.co.uk, retrieved 14 May 2020

Gallery

File:South entrance to Grange Hall - geograph.org.uk - 701267.jpg, The entrance to the former Drygrange House, in the Scottish Borders (2008).

References