The modern monastery was built between 1952 and 1970 (but is unfinished as the abbey church was never built) by architect Peter Rice Whiston (1912-1999).
List of Abbots
The modern establishment has had four Lord Abbots since its inception:
Father Michael Sherry, O.C.S.O. (d. 2003) Superior of the foundation between 1946 and its inauguration in 1948. Father Michael was the Prior, never the abbot. Nunraw was elevated from a priory to an abbey in 1948, Dom Columban Mulcahy being the first abbot.
Dom Columban Mulcahy, O.C.S.O. (1900-1971), Lord Abbot between 1948 and 1969
Dom Donald McGlynn, O.C.S.O., Abbot-emeritus and Lord Abbot between 1969 and 2003, an honorary "Chief" of the Igbo people in Nigeria.
* Now in England, but at the time of its foundation, part of the Scottish kingdom of David I. ** Filiation from Mellifont Abbey in Ireland, founded 1142. *** If this existed, it was shortly afterwards replaced by a Premonstratensian establishment. **** In the line of filiation from Melrose (above).