Ancient abbey, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. According to legend it was founded during the last quarter of the 6th century by monks from Iona, under Saint Columba and Saint Drostan. In 1219 the Earl of Buchan divided the abbey lands between a parochial church and New Deer, a newly founded Cistercian monastery which remained in existence until the Reformation. One of the oldest monuments of Scottish literature is the Book of Deer, now in the Cambridge University library. It is an illuminated Latin and Gaelic manuscript of the 9th century and later containing the Apostles' Creed, parts of the Gospels and of a Scottish office for Communion of the sick, and notes regarding the abbey.