The Abbey relocated the 15 miles or so to New Fearn on much better agricultural land in 1238. An Iron foundry was established here to make use of iron ore dragged across country from the west coast. The foundry was fuelled with wood from the then plentiful forests on the north eastern side of the Kyle of Sutherland. By the time James IV passed this way during one of his many pilgrimages to the Chapel of St Duthus at Tain, in the years around 1500, deforestation was gathering speed. He decreed the cleared land should be replanted with oak trees, some of which still exist east of Bonar Bridge. The monks, known as White Canons (from the colour of their dress) were austere and strictly organised. The chief task of the monks was to come together for prayer in the choir of the Abbey church, beginning each day with Martins between 2am and 3.30am and ending at night with Compline. Mass was also celebrated and in 1485 one abbot bought an organ and other furnishings from Flanders for the church.
Patrick Hamilton, the first martyr of the Reformation in Scotland was commendatory Abbot of Fearn from 1517-1528, although there is no evidence that he actually resided in the area. On the 15th August 1560 the representatives of the Barons of Ross voted with an overwhelming majority for the abolition of the Mass and the supremacy of the Pope, together with the adoption of the Protestant Confession of Faith - and so the Abbey became Protestant. (The Reformation). After the Reformation the building was used as a parish church. Early one Sunday morning in 1742, during the service, the roof of the church fell in killing 36 members of the congregation. The church was disused until repaired in 1772.
St Duthus's relics were then transferred to St Duthus's Collegiate Church, in the centre of Tain. This had been built in 1360 on the site of an earlier church, part of which still remains in the churchyard. The Collegiate Church then also became the focus of pilgrimage, and in the years around 1500, King James IV visited every yeare for 20 years. Orkney is a group of 67 islands lying off the north coast of Caithness. Only about a third of the islands are inhabited.
In 1472, archdeaconries of St Andrews and Lothian, college of Austin canons, primacy and province joined Aberdeen, Brechin, Dunblane, Dunkeld, Caithness (Dornoch), Moray (Elgin), Ross (Fortrose), Edinburgh, Glasgow-Teviotdale, Argyll (Lismore), Galloway (Whithorn). Whitorn recognized York despite papal taxation within Scotland from 1192, challenged in 1294, though accepted York allegiance till 1355, included in 1492 Glasgow province, college of Premonstratensian canons. After centuries of Norwegian rule, Orkney was annexed as part of Scotland by James III in 1468 after its rents had been pledged as security against a dowry that was not paid. The Norwegians have never formally recognised Orkney as part of Scotland. In 1656 Cromwell's troops were quartered in Tain, damaging large parts of it and causing most of the resident population to flee. In the 1690s much of Tain remained in ruin, and worse was to follow when first famine and then fire swept through what remained in 1696-7.