BEAULY (pronounced Bewley; a corruption of Beaulieu), town in Inverness-shire, Scotland, on the Beauly in Kilmorack parish, 12m. W. of Inverness by the L.M.S. railway. Pop. (1931), 799. Its chief interest is the beautiful remains of the Priory of St. John, founded in 123o by John Bisset of the Aird, for Cistercian monks. On the right bank of the river is the site of Lovat Castle, which once belonged to the Bissets, but was presented by James VI. to Hugh Fraser and afterwards demol ished. The church of Kirkhill to the south-east contains the Lovat vault. Three miles south of Beauly is the modern Beaufort Castle, the chief seat of the Lovats, on the site of a fortress of the time of Alexander II. This was replaced by several castles in succession, of which one—Castle Dounie—was taken by Crom well and burned by the duke of Cumberland in 1746.