When the Abbey School in Fort Augustus closed in 1993, it marked the end of both the first and the last post-Reformation monastic school for boys in Scotland.

It owed its foundation to Lord Lovat, who gave the old Hanoverian fort to the Benedictine Order at a peppercon rent in 1876. Its demise came with a lack of pupils, down to fewer than 100.

Michael Turnbull has faithfully chronicled the minutiae of school life from the records, including those of associated priory schools in Edinburgh and North Berwick. Former pupils will relish the recollections, others would wish for more analysis and synthesis.