Father Cyril Dieckhoff – Fort Augustus Abbey School Old Boys Association

born 3 July 1869

died 5 Aug 1950 aged 81 of apoplexy and diabetes

clothed 1892

Alias: VON DIECKHOFF

His father was a Lutheran minister

For the family history (escape from the Russians), see M.Butler Holme Eden: the Nuns of Fort Augustus, 2006, p48.

He had a sister, Sr Agnes Dieckhoff, a nun of Holme Ede and Kilcumein.

Fr Cyril has his own Wikipedia page;

Father Henry Cyril Dieckhoff (Russian: Генрих Кирилл Дикхофф) (1869-1950) was a Russian Catholic priest and linguist.^[1] He was born in Moscow, the son of a Lutheran preacher, but spent much of his youth in Germany, as his mother was Catholic and unable to continue living in Russia.^[2] He studied in Berlin and was given Holy Orders without permission from the Russian authorities and therefore first fled to England and then Scotland, where he was welcomed as a brother at the Fort Augustus Abbey in 1891.^[2] He gained priesthood six years laters in 1897.^[2]

He learnt Scottish Gaelic and did detailed research into the dialect of Glengarry and published a dictionary on the dialects, A Pronouncing Dictionary of Scottish Gaelic.^[3] His dictionary was unusual for the time as it included detailed pronunciation information not only on the citation forms but also inflected forms of the entries.

In 1932, Fr Cyril published Pronouncing Dictionary of Scottish Gaelic (Hardcover, 209 pages)

In 1933, Fr Cyril began to gather accounts of the Loch Ness Monster. His notes would later be used in a book published in 1957 “More than a legend” by Constance Whyte. It was reported he had seen the monster twice and had termed it “the plesiosaurus”.

Fr Cyril’s entry in the register of deaths for Fort Augustus for 1950 can be viewed online.

Father Cyril’s headstone in the monk’s cemetery