About the year 580 a church was founded in Deer by St. Columba and his nephew Drostan, on ground supplied by the Mormaer of the district as a return for the prayers of the saint in favour of his sick child. This Columban establishment survived till the time of David I., and was superseded by the monastery founded, as above stated, by the Earl of Buchan for a colony of monks of the Cistercian order from Kinloss. The site of the church (Fig. 689) is marked on the ground by an excavation over its whole area. The structure consisted of a nave about 98 feet long by 40 feet wide, including a north aisle, an aisleless choir or presbytery about 25 feet long and 24 feet wide, and north and south transepts. The total length of the church over all was 157 feet. The nave had a north aisle, and was divided into five bays. The bases of the pillars remained in position till 1854. The south transept was 39 feet wide, or about 6 feet 2 inches wider than the northern one, and it had probably a narrow eastern aisle. [Illustration: FIG. 689.--The Abbey of Deer. Plan.] The conventual buildings lay on the south side of the church, and are built on ground sloping southwards towards the Ugie, so that a basement story was required. The interior of the whole range of buildings is so overgrown with vegetation and filled with debris that it is with the utmost difficulty one can make his way through the ruins, and thus an accurate examination of the place is hardly possible. The cloister was about 70 feet from north to south by about 90 feet from east to west. On the south side there is a range of buildings about 125 feet long by 31 feet wide, divided into four apartments, forming the basement story, over which the refectory was probably built. To the east of this, lying north and south, is the fratry, measuring 35 feet in length by about 19 feet in width inside. Projecting southwards beyond the fratry by its full width a long range of buildings extends 80 feet eastwards, and measures about 21 feet in width over the walls. At the west end of this range there is an apartment about 20 feet from east to west by about 16 feet wide, which may probably have been the kitchen. In the north wall of this apartment there is a flue about 10 inches square. The room enters from a passage adjoining on the east side. There appears to have been a stair in this passage leading down to the lower buildings, and probably up to the dormitory, but the block of ruins at this part is so great as to render further observation impossible. Of the buildings which occupied the east side of the cloister all traces have now disappeared. [Illustration: FIG. 690.--The Abbey of Deer. Doorway in Passage.] [Illustration: FIG. 691.--The Abbey of Deer. Arches in the Ruins.]