On this day in 1390 Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, called the Wolf of Badenoch burned Elgin cathedral and all the church owned buildings in Elgin. His tomb at Dunkeld is pictured above.
In 1389 Alexander sought the intervention of the Bishop of Moray, Bishop Alexander Bur, to bring his marriage to an end. The Bishop came down on the side of Eupheme, and when Alexander then expelled her to make way for his mistress of the moment, Mariota Athyn, he was excommunicated by the Bishop of Moray.
It was Alexander's response to his excommunication that led to Alexander descended on Moray at the head of a large number of "wild, wykked Hieland-men." Alexander sacked the town of Forres, before heading east, destroying Pluscarden Abbey en route to Elgin where he arrived in 17 June 1390. Here he burned much of the town and destroyed Elgin Cathedral, the second largest cathedral in Scotland, widely known as the Lantern of the North.
