×  Home Galleries Projects Archive About Login
Item ID Title Description Type Added Updated
1 St Salvator's Quadrangle Image Thursday 18th of February 2021 04:29:58 PM Friday 19th of February 2021 04:51:51 PM
2 University of St Andrews Organisation Thursday 18th of February 2021 04:30:16 PM Wednesday 17th of March 2021 07:59:28 PM
3 School of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) Organisation Friday 19th of February 2021 04:04:31 PM Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 10:00:55 AM
4 School of Geography and Sustainable Development (GSD) Organisation Friday 19th of February 2021 04:04:55 PM Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 10:03:16 AM
5 School of History Organisation Friday 19th of February 2021 04:05:19 PM Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 10:02:06 AM
6 School of Computer Sciences (CS) Organisation Friday 19th of February 2021 04:05:47 PM Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 10:01:22 AM
7 School of Divinity (D) Organisation Friday 19th of February 2021 04:06:10 PM Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 10:01:48 AM
8 Wardlaw Museums (WM) Organisation Friday 19th of February 2021 04:06:37 PM Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 10:03:39 AM
9 Laidlaw Music Centre (LMC) Organisation Friday 19th of February 2021 04:07:08 PM Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 10:03:55 AM
10 Fife Regional Council Organisation Friday 19th of February 2021 04:07:38 PM Friday 19th of February 2021 04:07:38 PM
11 D’Arcy Thompson Simulator Centre Ltd Organisation Friday 19th of February 2021 04:08:01 PM Friday 19th of February 2021 04:08:01 PM
12 Scottish Fisheries Museum Organisation Friday 19th of February 2021 04:08:18 PM Friday 19th of February 2021 04:08:18 PM
13 Scottish Oceans Institute (SOI) Organisation Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 10:05:08 AM Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 10:05:08 AM
14 Environmental Sustainability Board (ESB) Organisation Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 10:05:29 AM Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 10:05:29 AM
15 Fife’s Prehistoric Past Organisation Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 01:58:25 PM Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 01:58:25 PM
16 Sacred Landscapes of Fife Organisation Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 01:58:37 PM Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 01:58:37 PM
17 The Changing Coastline Organisation Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 01:58:51 PM Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 01:58:51 PM
18 Monitoring the nearshore Organisation Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 01:59:10 PM Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 01:59:10 PM
19 People and Fife Organisation Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 01:59:21 PM Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 01:59:21 PM
20 Fife Collections Organisation Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 01:59:35 PM Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 01:59:35 PM
21 St. Athernase Church, Leuchars, Fife, Scotland Image Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:33:22 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:33:22 PM
22 Leuchars Leuchars (pronounced /ˈluːxərs/ (About this soundlisten) or /ˈluːkərz/; Scottish Gaelic: Luachar "rushes") is a small town and parish near the north-east coast of Fife in Scotland. The civil parish has a population of 5,754 (in 2011) [1] and an area of 13,357 acres (5,405 hectares). Immovable heritage Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:34:32 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:34:32 PM
23 St Andrews Image Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:39:28 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:39:28 PM
24 St Andrews St Andrews (Latin: S. Andrea(s); Scots: Saunt Aundraes; Scottish Gaelic: Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, 10 miles (16 kilometres) southeast of Dundee and 30 miles (50 kilometres) northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 as of 2011, making it Fife's fourth largest settlement and 45th most populous settlement in Scotland. Immovable heritage Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:40:11 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:59:33 PM
25 Crail Parish Church in early September Crail Parish Church in early September. This is a photo of listed building number 23244. Image Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:43:35 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:43:35 PM
26 Crail Crail Scottish Gaelic: (Cathair Aile) is a former royal burgh, parish and community council area (Royal Burgh of Crail and District) in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. Immovable heritage Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:43:53 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:43:53 PM
27 Kirk, Anstruther Wester Kirk, Anstruther Wester This fine old Kirk is now rather dilapidated and shored up in places. I suppose it's not in bad shape for something that has stood here for 764 years to date, well parts of it anyway, much of it was changed in a major overhaul in 1845. This the seaward side of the Kirk with its graveyard by the harbour. Image Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:48:59 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:48:59 PM
28 Anstruther Anstruther /ˈænstrəðər/ (Locally Ainster /ˈɛnstər/ Scottish Gaelic: Ànsruthair) is a small coastal resort town in Fife, Scotland, situated on the north-shore of the Firth of Forth[7] and 9 mi (14 km) south-southeast of St Andrews. The town comprises two settlements, Anstruther Easter and Anstruther Wester,[7] which are divided by a stream, the Dreel Burn. With a population of 3,500, it is the largest community on the Firth of Forth's north-shore coastline known as the East Neuk. To the east, it merges with the village of Cellardyke. Immovable heritage Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:49:16 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:49:16 PM
29 Pittenweem Parish Church and Tolbooth Pittenweem Parish Church and Tolbooth Image Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:52:13 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:52:13 PM
30 Pittenweem Pittenweem (/ˌpɪtənˈwiːm/) is a fishing village and civil parish in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 1,747. Immovable heritage Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:52:27 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:52:27 PM
31 St. Monans Parish Church, Fife Image Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:54:53 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:54:53 PM
32 St Monans St Monans (/ˈmoʊnənz/ (About this soundlisten), locally /ˈsɪmənənz/ (About this soundlisten)),[1] sometimes spelt St Monance, is a village and parish in the East Neuk of Fife and is named after the legendary Saint Monan. Immovable heritage Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:55:09 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:55:09 PM
33 Pre-Ref Methil Church The site of the pre-Reformation Methil Parish Church, now part of Methilmill Cemetery. Image Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:57:27 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:57:27 PM
34 Methil Methil (Scottish Gaelic: Meadhchill)[2] is an eastern coastal town in Scotland. It was first recorded as "Methkil" in 1207, and belonged to the Bishop of St Andrews. Two Bronze Age cemeteries have been discovered which date the settlement as over 8,000 years old. Immovable heritage Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:58:34 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 12:58:34 PM
35 St Serf's Church, Dysart Dysart, Panhall, Shore Road, St Serf's Church Image Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:04:12 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:04:12 PM
36 Dysart Dysart (/ˈdaɪzərt/ Scottish Gaelic: Dìseart) is a former town and royal burgh located on the south-east coast between Kirkcaldy and West Wemyss in Fife. The town is now considered to be a suburb of Kirkcaldy. Dysart was once part of a wider estate owned by the St Clair or Sinclair family. They were responsible for gaining burgh of barony status for the town towards the end of the 15th century. Immovable heritage Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:04:59 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:04:59 PM
37 St Fillan's Church 20100930 from the south St Fillan's Church, Aberdour, Fife, Scotland. View from the south. Image Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:07:43 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:07:43 PM
38 Aberdour Aberdour (/ˌæbərˈdaʊər/ (About this soundlisten); Scots: Aiberdour,[2] Scottish Gaelic: Obar Dobhair) is a scenic and historic village on the south coast of Fife, Scotland. It is on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, looking south to the island of Inchcolm and its Abbey, and to Leith and Edinburgh beyond. According to the 2011 census, the village has a population of 1,633.[1] Immovable heritage Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:08:06 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:08:06 PM
39 Burntisland Parish Kirk Dating from 1592, St. Columba's is the oldest pre-Reformation kirk still in use. In 1601, it was the venue of the General Assembly, held in the presence of King James VI, at which the need for a new translation of the Bible was suggested. The idea materialised a decade later with the appearance of the Authorised Version, known as the 'King James Bible', printed in England in 1611. Image Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:10:48 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:10:48 PM
40 Burntisland Burntisland (/bɜːrntˈaɪlənd/, Scots: Bruntisland) is a former royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland, on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 6,269. Immovable heritage Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:11:07 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:11:07 PM
41 Inverkeithing Friary, Inverkeithing Inverkeithing Friary, Queen Street, Inverkeithing, Fife, Scotland Image Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:16:05 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:16:05 PM
42 Inverkeithing Inverkeithing (/ˌɪnvərˈkiːðɪŋ/ Scottish Gaelic: Inbhir Chèitinn) is a port town and parish, in Fife, Scotland, on the Firth of Forth. According to 2016 population estimates, the town has a population of 4,890, while the civil parish was reported to have a population of 8,090 in 2011. Immovable heritage Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:16:25 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:58:06 PM
43 Culross Abbey (Parish Church), Fife Image Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:18:30 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:18:30 PM
44 Culross Culross (/ˈkurəs/) (Scottish Gaelic: Cuileann Ros, 'holly point or promontory') is a village and former royal burgh, and parish, in Fife, Scotland. Immovable heritage Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:18:55 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 01:18:55 PM
45 St Fillan's Bell 3D Object Thursday 25th of February 2021 03:26:02 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 03:27:51 PM
46 St Fillan's Bell Early Christian hand-bell formerly kept and used in St Fillan’s Church, Struan (near Blair Atholl), Perthshire, and possibly associated with that place since the eighth century. It is made of wrought iron, coated in bronze. From the collection of Perth Museum & Art Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council. accession: PERGM 3/1939 Height 333mm Moveable Heritage Thursday 25th of February 2021 03:26:52 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 03:34:38 PM
47 Pittenweem Collection Thursday 25th of February 2021 03:32:58 PM Thursday 25th of February 2021 03:32:58 PM
48 Kingsbarns Beach 360 Media Tuesday 02nd of March 2021 05:20:34 PM Thursday 11th of March 2021 10:12:32 AM
49 Rock and Spindle The Rock and Spindle geological site 360 Media Tuesday 02nd of March 2021 05:21:54 PM Thursday 11th of March 2021 10:13:44 AM
50 Sampling Platforms, Kingcraig Sampling the platform sections at Kingcraig point for OSL dating Image Thursday 11th of March 2021 10:01:54 AM Thursday 11th of March 2021 10:17:10 AM
51 Raised beach platforms, Kingcraig Overview of raised beach platforms at Kingcraig near Elie, Fife Image Thursday 11th of March 2021 10:21:33 AM Thursday 11th of March 2021 10:21:33 AM
52 Electromagnetic Survey Conducting electromagnetic surveying on the raised beaches at Kingcraig using a Geonics EM38 Image Thursday 11th of March 2021 10:24:02 AM Thursday 11th of March 2021 10:24:02 AM
53 Kingcraig Kincraig Point raised beach platforms Immovable heritage Thursday 11th of March 2021 02:01:06 PM Thursday 11th of March 2021 03:39:43 PM
57 Kinkell Raised Beach 3 360 photosphere on the 4m raised beach to east of Kinkell Braes 360 Media Sunday 21st of March 2021 05:11:17 PM Tuesday 20th of April 2021 10:09:11 AM
58 St Fort Quarry Aerial view of St Fort sand and gravel quarry Image Sunday 21st of March 2021 05:13:16 PM Sunday 21st of March 2021 05:13:16 PM
59 Esker St Fort Aerial view of the esker at St Fort Image Sunday 21st of March 2021 05:16:31 PM Sunday 21st of March 2021 05:16:31 PM
61 kincaple OSL sampling Tim Kinnaird OSL sampling Image Sunday 21st of March 2021 05:41:03 PM Wednesday 31st of March 2021 02:46:40 PM
62 Kincaple East Kincaple East raised beaches Immovable heritage Sunday 21st of March 2021 05:44:41 PM Wednesday 31st of March 2021 02:47:32 PM
63 Arthropleura Tracks Image Friday 26th of March 2021 03:18:47 PM Tuesday 20th of April 2021 01:09:05 PM
65 Kingsbarns Geological Trail Geological field guide to Kingsbarns Beach. Document Friday 26th of March 2021 03:22:45 PM Friday 26th of March 2021 03:22:45 PM
66 Kingsbarns Kingsbarns has a variety of different fossils including 330 million year old millipede tracks. There are also fossilised shells and the imprints of ancient roots of trees called Lepidodendron which grew in Fife during the Carboniferous era. Immovable heritage Friday 26th of March 2021 03:26:42 PM Friday 26th of March 2021 03:26:42 PM
67 Rock and Spindle The Rock and Spindle is an ancient volcanic vent, and it has an excellent example of radial columnar jointing (it looks like spokes of a wheel) due to the way the magma cooled. The rock just to the north of the Rock and Spindle is believed to be a section of the volcano that collapsed in on itself. Immovable heritage Tuesday 30th of March 2021 04:55:52 PM Wednesday 31st of March 2021 04:28:05 PM
68 St Andrews Geological Trail Geological field guide to St Andrews. Document Tuesday 30th of March 2021 05:06:24 PM Tuesday 30th of March 2021 05:08:08 PM
69 Building Stones of St Andrews A guide to the stones used to build St Andrews. Document Tuesday 30th of March 2021 05:23:50 PM Wednesday 31st of March 2021 02:49:34 PM
71 Building Stones of Crail Document Tuesday 30th of March 2021 06:17:37 PM Tuesday 30th of March 2021 06:17:37 PM
74 Aberdour Geological Trail A walking trail to see the geology of Aberdour. Document Tuesday 30th of March 2021 06:37:30 PM Tuesday 30th of March 2021 06:37:30 PM
76 Holy Trinity Church St Andrews - A Testimony in Stone A guide to the different types of stone used to build Holy Trinity Church. Document Tuesday 30th of March 2021 06:57:38 PM Tuesday 30th of March 2021 06:57:38 PM
77 Holy Trinity Church Holy Trinity Church features many interesting types of stone, including a beautiful alabaster and marble pulpit. Immovable heritage Tuesday 30th of March 2021 06:59:29 PM Wednesday 31st of March 2021 04:47:56 PM
79 Cellardyke forest bed Bed of fossil tree (Lepidodendron) stumps in Carboniferous sequence near Cellardyke, Fife Immovable heritage Wednesday 31st of March 2021 03:07:41 PM Wednesday 31st of March 2021 03:32:37 PM
80 Cellardyke Rose Deformation feature in Carboniferous sandstones near Cellardyke, Fife Image Wednesday 31st of March 2021 03:16:27 PM Wednesday 31st of March 2021 03:16:27 PM
81 Cellardyke Rose model Deformation structure within the Carboniferous sandstones at Cellardyke, Fife 3D Object Wednesday 31st of March 2021 03:20:58 PM Monday 19th of April 2021 10:57:54 AM
82 Rock and Spindle overvivew Overview of Kinkell Ness with Rock and Spindle Image Wednesday 31st of March 2021 04:27:16 PM Wednesday 31st of March 2021 04:27:16 PM
84 Wormit Geological Trail A walking trail to see the geology of Wormit. Document Wednesday 31st of March 2021 05:23:11 PM Wednesday 31st of March 2021 05:23:11 PM
86 Wormit At Wormit there is a wide variety of geology including lava flows, river conglomerates, intrusive rhyolite and glacial erratics. Immovable heritage Wednesday 31st of March 2021 05:24:20 PM Wednesday 31st of March 2021 05:24:20 PM
87 St Monans Geological Trail A walking trail to see the Geology of St Monans. Document Wednesday 31st of March 2021 05:26:12 PM Wednesday 31st of March 2021 05:26:12 PM
88 St Monans St Monans has a number of fossils including corals and also a coal seam. The rocks here have been folded and tilted since they were deposited. Immovable heritage Wednesday 31st of March 2021 05:27:48 PM Wednesday 31st of March 2021 05:27:48 PM
89 Kinghorn to Kirkcaldy Geological Trail A walking trail to see the Geology between Kinghorn and Kirkcaldy. Document Wednesday 31st of March 2021 05:30:18 PM Wednesday 31st of March 2021 05:30:18 PM
90 Kinghorn This area between Kinghorn and Kirkcaldy has some pillow basalts as well as fossilised corals and crinoids. Immovable heritage Wednesday 31st of March 2021 05:31:23 PM Wednesday 31st of March 2021 05:31:23 PM
91 Ruby Bay This bay doesn’t actually have rubies, it’s named after the tiny red garnets in the sand which look a bit like rubies to the untrained eye. You might find some if you get down on your hands and knees sift through the sand. Immovable heritage Wednesday 31st of March 2021 05:34:46 PM Wednesday 31st of March 2021 05:34:46 PM
93 Cellardyke Rose 3D Object Wednesday 31st of March 2021 09:08:19 PM Wednesday 31st of March 2021 09:08:19 PM
94 6 Case Studies Geolocated Monday 05th of April 2021 09:20:43 AM Monday 05th of April 2021 09:27:36 AM
95 Aberdour Geolocated Monday 05th of April 2021 09:26:33 AM Monday 05th of April 2021 09:26:33 AM
96 Aberhill Geolocated Monday 05th of April 2021 09:51:50 AM Monday 05th of April 2021 09:51:50 AM
97 Admiralty Central Geolocated Monday 05th of April 2021 09:53:19 AM Monday 05th of April 2021 09:53:19 AM
98 Admiralty North East Sound Monday 05th of April 2021 09:54:01 AM Monday 05th of April 2021 09:54:01 AM
99 Photosphere of Kingcraig Raised beach platforms at Kingcraig, nr. Elie, Fife 360 Media Tuesday 20th of April 2021 10:13:01 AM Tuesday 20th of April 2021 10:13:01 AM
100 Tollbooth, Crail The Tolbooth built in 1598 and tower, rebuilt in 1776 contain well cut blocks of both local sandstone (buff-coloured) and material from Locharbriggs Quarry, Dumfries (dark red sandstone) Image Tuesday 20th of April 2021 12:15:18 PM Tuesday 20th of April 2021 01:57:44 PM
101 Memorial Fountain, Crail The Memorial Fountain was built in 1897 and is dedicated to Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. It is built of both grey and red granite. Image Tuesday 20th of April 2021 12:23:16 PM Tuesday 20th of April 2021 12:23:16 PM
102 Tollbooth tower, Crail Tollbooth Tower, Crail Image Tuesday 20th of April 2021 12:27:31 PM Tuesday 20th of April 2021 01:58:04 PM
103 Tollbooth Tower, Crail The Tolbooth built in 1598 and tower, rebuilt in 1776 contain well cut blocks of both local sandstone (buff-coloured) and material from Locharbriggs Quarry, Dumfries (dark red sandstone) Immovable heritage Tuesday 20th of April 2021 12:29:34 PM Tuesday 20th of April 2021 12:29:34 PM
104 Channel, Roome Bay Channel cut into Carboniferous sandstones at Roome Bay, Crail Image Tuesday 20th of April 2021 01:06:18 PM Tuesday 20th of April 2021 01:06:18 PM
105 Arthropleura Tracks, St Andrews Arthropleura tracks near St Andrews, a cast of them can be seen in MUSA, the Scores, St Andrews 3D Object Tuesday 20th of April 2021 01:22:18 PM Tuesday 20th of April 2021 03:53:44 PM
106 Interior of All Saints’ Church in about 1920. Manifest. Image Tuesday 18th of May 2021 12:31:06 PM Tuesday 18th of May 2021 01:17:10 PM
107 All Saints' Church, St Andrews All Saints’ Church originally served the St Andrews fishing community (which was traditionally focused around the east end of town). In 1903 a small iron mission church was established, and in 1907 a stone chancel was added. Following the First World War further building work took place, and the completed church was consecrated on All Saints’ Day in 1923. Much of the construction work was paid for by Mrs Younger of Mount Melville who instructed that Holy Communion must be the main service every Sunday morning. (At that time Matins was more commonly the principal morning service in Episcopal churches.) Immovable heritage Tuesday 18th of May 2021 12:46:11 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 06:18:34 AM
108 Interior of All Saints’ Church in about 1920. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, GMC-F-94.) Image Tuesday 18th of May 2021 01:00:21 PM Tuesday 18th of May 2021 01:18:12 PM
109 Point of Interest Key Image Tuesday 18th of May 2021 01:05:27 PM Tuesday 18th of May 2021 01:05:27 PM
110 A video showing how St Andrews Cathedral may have appeared in 1318. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / Smart History) Video Tuesday 18th of May 2021 03:10:29 PM Tuesday 18th of May 2021 03:10:29 PM
111 St Andrews Cathedral, St Andrews St Andrews Cathedral was once the most important church in Scotland. It was the base for the country’s senior bishopric and housed the relics of Jesus’s disciple Andrew (the nation’s patron saint). The origins of St Andrews Cathedral stretch back into the Early Middle Ages when there was a Celtic monastery in this area. In the twelfth century religious life in St Andrews underwent major changes, and a priory of Augustinian canons took over care of the church and shrine. During the 1160s work began on a vast new Cathedral, which was eventually consecrated (in other words officially blessed and opened for worship) in 1318 in the presence of King Robert the Bruce. The completed Cathedral was the largest building constructed in Scotland before the nineteenth century. It was a centre of pilgrimage, learning, power, and law. Indeed, the church courts in St Andrews were among the busiest in the kingdom. However, in 1559 the Protestant Reformers tore apart this Catholic power base. The Cathedral was stripped of furnishings, altars and statues were smashed, and wooden images and Catholic mass-books were burnt. The vast church rapidly fell into ruin, and orchards, gardens, and houses took over much of the wider Cathedral site. Today the core of the former religious buildings are cared for by Historic Environment Scotland, whilst much of the wider site is occupied by St Leonard’s School. Immovable heritage Tuesday 18th of May 2021 03:15:23 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 06:19:24 AM
112 Walter Bower describes life at St Andrews Cathedral Priory in the late Middle Ages. (Read by Professor Michael Brown.) Sound Tuesday 18th of May 2021 03:28:06 PM Tuesday 18th of May 2021 03:28:06 PM
113 The original Baptist chapel on a mid-nineteenth-century map. (Source: 1854 Ordnance Survey Map of St Andrews. Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/74416778) Image Tuesday 18th of May 2021 03:36:54 PM Tuesday 18th of May 2021 03:36:54 PM
114 Baptist Church, St Andrews There has been a Baptist church on South Street since the early 1840s. When the original church opened it had seating for 250 people. The main space for worship was on the first floor and there were shops below. Around 1900 the church was remodelled by the architects Gillespie and Scott, creating the building that the Baptist congregation uses today. Immovable heritage Tuesday 18th of May 2021 03:39:12 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 06:12:12 AM
117 St Andrews’ Dominican friary shortly after the Reformation. (Source: John Geddy, ‘S. Andrew sive Andreapolis Scotiae Universitas Metropolitana’. NLS, MS.20996. Available at: http://maps.nls.uk/towns/rec/215) Image Thursday 20th of May 2021 01:50:35 PM Thursday 20th of May 2021 01:50:35 PM
118 Black Friars, St Andrews The Dominican order (or black friars) arrived in St Andrews during the fifteenth century. There are references to a Dominican place or house in St Andrews in the 1440s. This was then developed into a fully established friary at the start of the sixteenth century, occupying a prime location on South Street. To support the new foundation funds were diverted from the black friars’ sites in Cupar and St Monans – a move that was justified on the basis that St Monans was merely a poor fishing village and Cupar was increasingly impoverished, while the presence of a university in St Andrews meant it was a suitable place for educated men. The Dominicans played a significant role in St Andrews during the early sixteenth century, preaching regularly, engaging with education, and taking part in major heresy trials. In 1559 the Dominicans’ buildings were attacked by Protestant activists and the friars ‘violently expelled’. The black friars’ site was later handed over to the St Andrew burgh council with the intention that it should support education, care for the poor and sick, and fund the new Protestant ministry. Immovable heritage Thursday 20th of May 2021 01:54:03 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 06:17:55 AM
122 Burgher Kirk, Imries Close, St Andrews During the 1730s a section of the Church of Scotland was unhappy with how ministers were appointed and the allocation of religious wealth. They formed a break-away group known as the Secession Church. This then split again in the late 1740s, leading to the creation of the Burgher Church. In St Andrews the members of the Burgher Church met in an old barn on Imrie’s Close. This was used as a place of worship between 1749 and 1774. In the mid-twentieth century there were plans to demolish the former kirk, but the property was rescued and restored by the St Andrews Preservation Trust. It is now a small house. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 06:28:22 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 07:35:31 PM
123 Burgher Meeting House, 141 South Street, St Andrews In 1774 the Burgher congregation in St Andrews moved to a building in a yard on the north side of South Street. This property still exists and is now faced in yellow harling. The congregation does not seem to have been particularly large. In 1793 only 91 dissenters ‘of all denominations’ were recorded in the burgh of St Andrews, with a further five dissenters in the suburb of Argyle. The congregation relocated to a house on North Street in 1826. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 06:46:09 AM Friday 21st of May 2021 09:53:31 AM
124 Castle Chapel, St Andrews St Andrews Castle was once the home of the bishops of St Andrews. There seems to have been a castle on this site since at least the 1190s. We do not know exactly when the castle chapel was built, but it is likely that there was a place of worship here from an early date. By the late Middle Ages the chapel was located towards the south-eastern corner of the castle. The chapel windows appear to have had a quatrefoil design at the top, not unlike some of the windows on St Leonard’s Chapel. Records from the time of Bishop Kennedy (who died in 1465) reveal that the castle chapel was richly furnished, with hangings, embroidered cushions, and silk and velvet vestments for the priests. Meanwhile early sixteenth-century accounts contain payments for wax candles and the washing of the altar linen at the castle chapel. Following the Reformation St Andrews Castle continued to be occupied for a while, although it is possible that the chapel stopped serving a religious purpose. During the early seventeenth century the castle fell into disrepair, and in 1656 stone from the castle was removed to repair the long pier at St Andrews Harbour. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 06:49:45 AM Friday 21st of May 2021 03:04:18 PM
125 Congregational Church, Bell Street, St Andrews During the mid-nineteenth century a Congregational church was built on the east side of Bell Street. It was substantial Victorian stone building designed by the architects Andrew Kerr and Jesse Hall. The church closed in the 1960s, and was demolished in 1983. The site is now occupied by shops. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 06:51:30 AM Friday 21st of May 2021 03:00:00 PM
126 Congregational Church, 105 Market Street, St Andrews A Congregational church was built on the north side of Market Street in 1807. The church had seating for 320 people. There were two entrances from the street and there appears to have been a gallery above the doorways. During the early nineteenth century Thomas Paton, one of St Andrews’ first Congregational ministers, established a Sunday school in the burgh. The church closed in 1854 after the congregation moved to a new building on Bell Street. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 06:59:13 AM Friday 21st of May 2021 03:14:28 PM
127 Christian Brethren Hall, Greenside Place, St Andrews In the 1930s the Christian Brethren leased a cottage on Greenside Place. This was subsequently converted into a hall for worship. The Christian Brethren used the hall until the early twentieth century. The property was then sold, and the building once again returned to being a house. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 07:01:44 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 07:40:54 PM
128 Friends Meeting House, Howard Place, St Andrews Since 1993 Quaker meetings have been held in a Victorian house on Howard Place. The Society of Friends occupy the lower two storeys of the house, with meetings taking place in a simply furnished room on the ground floor. There has been a group of Quakers in St Andrews since at least 1967. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 07:08:38 AM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 05:33:52 PM
129 Gospel Hall, St Andrews The Gospel Hall is in a former shop on the narrow section of Market Street. Christian Brethren (traditionally sometimes called Plymouth Brethren) have worshipped here since at least 1914. During the early twentieth century the Plymouth Brethren had a growing presence in the Fife fishing communities, and between the wars fishermen cycled up from villages such as St Monans to worship at the Gospel Hall in St Andrews. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 07:12:09 AM Friday 21st of May 2021 03:17:42 PM
130 Grey Friars, St Andrews During the late Middle Ages an Observant Franciscan friary was located on a large plot of land between Market Street and North Street (where Greyfriars Garden now stands). The friary was founded by Bishop Kennedy in the mid-fifteenth century. The Observant Franciscans were committed to both personal and institutional poverty, and largely survived on gifts of food, money, and clothing from pious members of the public. They had a strong preaching tradition, and in the sixteenth century several friars from St Andrews resisted the spread of Protestant ideas, including helping prosecute heretics. Indeed, in 1539 Friar Simon Maltman, the warden of the St Andrews Franciscans, was sent to advise the Archbishop of Glasgow on how to conduct a heresy trial. Maltman also preached at the last major heresy trial in Scotland before the Reformation – which resulted in the execution of Walter Myln outside St Andrews Cathedral. However, the friars were fighting a rear-guard action. In May 1559, with religious rebellion sweeping Scotland, the Franciscans handed over their friary in St Andrews to the local urban authorities. Despite this, the buildings were attacked by Protestant activists a month later. Shortly afterwards the friars fled to Continental Europe. The Franciscan friary was the only one of St Andrews’ mid-sixteenth-century Catholic institutions where none of the churchmen converted to Protestantism. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 07:15:24 AM Friday 21st of May 2021 03:35:02 PM
132 The Burgher Kirk shown in 1820 on John Wood’s plan of St Andrews. (Source: National Library of Scotland, EMS. X.009. Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/74400057) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 09:46:39 AM Friday 21st of May 2021 09:46:39 AM
133 The Burgher Kirk shown in 1820 on John Wood’s plan of St Andrews. (Source: National Library of Scotland, EMS. X.009) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 09:53:19 AM Friday 21st of May 2021 09:53:19 AM
134 The original parish church of Holy Trinity was probably a little to the north of St Rule’s, in the area towards the centre and right side of this photograph. (Source: Bess Rhodes) The original parish church of Holy Trinity was probably a little to the north of St Rule’s, in the area towards the centre and right side of this photograph. (Source: Bess Rhodes) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 10:30:51 AM Friday 21st of May 2021 10:48:03 AM
135 Holy Trinity Church, Cathedral Precinct, St Andrews The parish of Holy Trinity is first recorded in the 1140s, when Bishop Robert was reorganising religious life in St Andrews. For centuries Holy Trinity was the main church for the residents of St Andrews. The church was originally located within the Cathedral precinct a little to the north of the surviving ruins of St Rule’s Church. At the start of the fifteenth century the citizens of St Andrews built a new parish church on South Street, closer to the residential and commercial area of St Andrews, and the original Holy Trinity ceased to serve as a parish church. The building was briefly used by the newly founded University of St Andrews, but seems to have been demolished at some point before the middle of the sixteenth century. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 10:45:42 AM Friday 21st of May 2021 10:45:42 AM
136 The Hallow Hill area in 1968 before large-scale housing development. The hill is bounded on the north by the Kinness Burn, to the west by the Cairnsmill Burn, and to the south by the medieval Canongate. (Source: Ordnance Survey, Sheet NO 41 NE. Available from the National Library of Scotland: https://maps.nls.uk/view/188141295) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 02:52:22 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 02:52:22 PM
137 Hallow Hill, St Andrews The area now called Hallow Hill was once known as Eglesnamin. This name also has religious associations, with 'egles' appearing to be a Pictish word for a church. Hallow Hill may in fact be one of the oldest religious sites in St Andrews. There was an early medieval cemetery here, and numerous burials in stone long-cists have been excavated on the hillside. In the 1140s the lands of Eglesnamin were given to the newly founded priory of Augustinian canons at St Andrews Cathedral. In 1555 the area was described as All Hallow Hill (which means All Saints’ Hill), implying that people still felt the place had a religious significance. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 02:57:09 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 02:57:09 PM
138 The Congregational Church on Bell Street in 1895. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, StA-BellS-1. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/bell-street-st-andrews-from-n/123317) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 02:59:53 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 02:59:53 PM
139 St Andrews Castle at the end of the seventeenth century. The windows of the castle chapel (with their quatrefoil tracery) can be seen to the right of the fore tower. (Source: John Slezer, ‘The Ruins of the Castle of St Andrews’, Theatrum Scotiae (1693). Available at: http://digital.nls.uk/slezer/engraving.cfm?sl=15) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 03:04:12 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 03:04:12 PM
140 The Congregational chapel on Market Street in the 1850s. (Source: 1854 Ordnance Survey Map of St Andrews. Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/74416778) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 03:14:15 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 03:14:15 PM
141 Gospel Hall, Market Street, St Andrews. (Source: Bess Rhodes) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 03:17:34 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 03:30:14 PM
142 The Franciscan friary in St Andrews shortly after the Reformation. (Source: John Geddy, ‘S. Andrew sive Andreapolis Scotiae Universitas Metropolitana’. NLS, MS.20996. Available at: http://maps.nls.uk/towns/rec/215) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 03:34:54 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 03:34:54 PM
143 Holy Trinity Church in 1767. Drawing by John Oliphant. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, OLI-16. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/trinity-church-st-andrews/93065) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 03:40:51 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 03:40:51 PM
144 Holy Trinity Church, South Street, St Andrews Since the early fifteenth century Holy Trinity Church has been located on South Street. The current site was given by Sir William Lindsay of the Byres for the citizens of St Andrews to build ‘a church in honour of the Holy Trinity with a row of pillars on each side of the nave’. During the late Middle Ages Holy Trinity was the focus for pious donations by St Andrews residents, and at the time of the Reformation it was served by about thirty priests. As the burgh church of St Andrews Holy Trinity was at the heart of the religious upheavals of the sixteenth century. During the siege of St Andrews Castle in 1546 and 1547 it was the scene of competing sermons by Catholic and Protestant preachers – including a young John Knox. In June 1559 Knox returned to Holy Trinity and delivered a fateful sermon which encouraged the St Andrews burgh council to reject Catholicism and establish a Protestant city. Holy Trinity then became a focal point for religious reform, playing a key role in the establishment of new patterns of religious administration and discipline. In the seventeenth century, when the archbishopric of St Andrews was restored, Holy Trinity became for a brief period a cathedral. The monument to Archbishop Sharp on the south side of the church forms a reminder of this period of the church’s history. Over the centuries Holy Trinity has undergone several redesigns, including at the Reformation, at the start of the nineteenth century, and at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, several elements of the medieval church still exist. The high tower and spire of Holy Trinity have changed little since the Middle Ages. Some of the original pillars requested by Sir William Lindsay also survive. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 03:43:50 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 03:43:50 PM
145 Hope Park Church in about 1860. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, ALB-49-33. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/u-p-united-presbyterian-church-st-andrews/80687) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 03:47:15 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 03:47:15 PM
146 Hope Park Church, St Andrews Hope Park was built in the 1860s for the United Presbyterians, who had previously been worshipping in a house on North Street. The church was designed by the architects Peddie and Kinnear. The new church was originally towards the western edge of St Andrews, as at that time the housing along Doubledykes Road and Hepburn Gardens had not yet been constructed. Like several other churches in St Andrews, Hope Park was affected by the varying realignments of Scottish Protestants during the early twentieth century. In 1900 the United Presbyterians became the United Free Church of Scotland, which in 1929 then rejoined the Church of Scotland. During the early twenty-first century the congregation of Hope Park joined with Martyrs’ Kirk (a Church of Scotland congregation which was formerly based on North Street). The church is now known as Hope Park and Martyrs. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 03:49:27 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 03:49:27 PM
147 North Street in about 1846. The bell turret of Martyrs’ Kirk can be seen on the left-hand side of the street, opposite St Salvator’s Chapel. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, EPM-JA-10. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/north-street-st-andrews/100475) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 03:54:10 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 03:54:10 PM
148 Martyrs’ Church, St Andrews The first version of Martyrs’ Church was built in the 1840s by a Free Church congregation (one of the groups that broke away from the Church of Scotland in the mid-nineteenth century). The congregation rapidly expanded, and in 1851 the building was remodelled by the architect John Milne to allow for the growing numbers attending the church. At the start of the twentieth century the Free Church became the United Free Church, which then in 1929 rejoined the Church of Scotland. Shortly before this reunion, Martyrs’ Church was again rebuilt, this time by the well-known Fife architects Gillespie and Scott. This version of the church was used as a place of worship until the early twenty-first century when the congregation joined with Hope Park Church. The formers Martyrs’ Church now serves as a research library for the University of St Andrews, and retains many of its distinctive architectural features. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 03:56:07 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 03:56:07 PM
149 Salvation Army Hall, St Andrews The Salvation Army started a corps in St Andrews in 1893. After some difficulties in the early years, there was a continuous Salvation Army presence in St Andrews from 1934 until 2003. During the 1980s the Salvation Army acquired a former house on North Street for meetings. This property was sold in the early twenty-first century and converted into a restaurant. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 03:58:35 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 06:56:12 PM
150 St Andrew’s Chapel in about 1865. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, ALB-10-62. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/st-andrews-chapel-st-andrews/43875 ) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 04:03:46 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 04:03:46 PM
151 St Andrew’s Chapel In 1690 Scotland officially became a Presbyterian country, rejecting episcopacy (or the government of the church by bishops). Some Scots did not accept the changes, forming the origins of the Scottish Episcopal Church. There have been Episcopalians in St Andrews ever since this split, but it was not until the early nineteenth century that discrimination had reduced enough for them to build an official church. In 1824 work began on an Episcopalian chapel dedicated to St Andrew and located on North Street. The original chapel was designed by John Burn, but in the 1850s the west front was remodelled by the well-known Gothic architect George Gilbert Scott. During the mid-nineteenth century St Andrew’s Chapel had seating for 200 people, but this soon became too few for the growing Episcopal community. In 1867 the Episcopalians laid the foundations of a larger church on Queen’s Terrace. A few years later St Andrew’s Chapel was dismantled and the stones were shipped to the south side of Fife to construct Buckhaven Free Church. The site of St Andrew’s Chapel is now occupied by College Gate (one of the main administrative buildings of the University of St Andrews). Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 04:06:14 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:02:26 PM
152 St Andrew’s Episcopal Church in about 1955. Photograph by George Cowie. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, GMC-29-20-4. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/st-andrews-episcopal-church-queens-terrace-st-andrews/585969) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 04:21:56 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 04:21:56 PM
153 St Andrew’s Church, St Andrews St Andrew’s Church was built to replace a smaller Episcopal church (also dedicated to St Andrew) which once stood on North Street. The foundations for the new church were laid in 1867, and the church was consecrated (in other words officially blessed for worship) in 1877. The building was designed by Sir Robert Rowland Anderson, and originally had seating for 600 worshippers. During its early history the grand new church was often referred to as a cathedral. In the 1890s a tower was added to St Andrew’s, but it was felt to be structurally unsound and was demolished shortly before the Second World War. St Andrew’s Church remains an Episcopal place of worship to this day. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 04:26:06 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 04:26:06 PM
154 North Street around the site of St Anna’s Chapel, c. 1580. The larger building with three windows towards the centre of the image may represent the former chapel. (Source: John Geddy, ‘S. Andrew sive Andreapolis Scotiae Universitas Metropolitana’. NLS, MS.20996. Available at: http://maps.nls.uk/towns/rec/215) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 04:30:30 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 04:30:30 PM
155 St Anna’s Chapel, St Andrews During the late Middle Ages a chapel dedicated to St Anna (the grandmother of Jesus) stood on the north side of North Street. St Anna’s Chapel was probably a chantry – an institution where one or more priests regularly prayed for the souls of the dead. Chantries, or chaplainries as they were traditionally termed in Scotland, were often part of a larger church, but could be a separate building like St Anna’s. In the early sixteenth century church courts sometimes met in St Anna’s Chapel. Early property records indicate that near the chapel there was area known as ‘St Anna’s Yard’. Shortly after the Reformation the chapel and its revenues were transferred to St Andrews burgh council. By the late 1560s the site of St Anna’s was held by Robert Pont, a leading figure in the Reformed Church of Scotland. The area where the chapel once stood is now covered by the University of St Andrews’ College Gate building. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 04:34:42 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 04:37:15 PM
156 The original iron Church of St James being removed in 1909. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, GMC-F-95. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/st-jamess-church-st-andrews/8269) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 06:16:36 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 06:16:36 PM
157 St James’s Church, St Andrews Following the Reformation the authorities in St Andrews (like many other Scottish towns) prosecuted Roman Catholics. This meant that for several centuries there was no official Catholic congregation in St Andrews. As religious toleration increased in the nineteenth century Catholicism returned to the area. In 1885 a Roman Catholic church dedicated to St James was founded on the Scores, looking out over the sea. The original church was made of corrugated iron and was sometimes known as the ‘Tin Tabernacle’. In 1909 the iron church was removed and replaced by a stone church designed by Reginald Fairlie, who would later become a leading Scottish architect (designing among other sites the National Library of Scotland). The interior of the church underwent some alteration in the 1970s to reflect new approaches to worship following the Second Vatican Council (which ended in 1965). Today St James’s remains a Roman Catholic church, serving the residents and students of St Andrews. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 06:18:48 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 06:18:48 PM
158 St Leonard’s Chapel after 1761. The chapel was then in ruins and being used to grow shrubs, although the (now demolished) college tower was still standing. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, OLI-15. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/st-leonards-chapel/93063) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 06:23:00 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 06:23:00 PM
159 St Leonard’s Chapel, St Andrews St Leonard’s Chapel has a long and varied history. The Culdees may have had a pilgrim hospital on this site in the Early Middle Ages. In the 1140s the hospital and its property were given to the newly founded St Andrews Cathedral Priory. An association with St Leonard is first recorded in the thirteenth century, when the hospital was still serving pilgrims visiting the shrine of St Andrew. At some point between 1250 and 1413 St Leonard’s came to be a parish church, but remained under the control of the Cathedral Priory. By the beginning of the sixteenth century pilgrimage to St Andrews had declined and the hospital was providing shelter to a group of elderly poor women. In 1512 the old women were removed and a new university college dedicated to St Leonard was founded on the site. Significant sections of the chapel appear to date from this time, and the arms of one of the college’s founders (Prior John Hepburn) can be seen on a buttress on the south side. In 1747 St Leonard’s College joined with St Salvator’s College to create the United College (which was based in St Salvator’s Quad on North Street). This union led to major changes. The congregation of St Leonard’s removed to St Salvator’s Chapel in 1761. The university sold the St Leonard’s buildings a little while later, but excluded the chapel from the sale. No longer used as a place of worship it was partly dismantled, and by the time Samuel Johnson visited St Andrews in 1773 the former chapel was being used as ‘a kind of green-house’. During the nineteenth century the wider St Leonard’s buildings became a school, and some conservation work was done on the chapel. In 1910 the church was re-roofed, and after the Second World War it once again became a university chapel. Services are celebrated here each week during term time. Immovable heritage Friday 21st of May 2021 06:25:05 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 06:25:05 PM
160 St Salvator’s Chapel in about 1767. Some of the original windows have been partly blocked up, others are covered with shutters. The medieval stone roof can still be seen. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, OLI-11. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/st-salvators-college-chapel/93059) Image Friday 21st of May 2021 07:20:43 PM Friday 21st of May 2021 07:20:43 PM
161 Plaque outside the Parish Church of Inverkeithing (Source: Tom Turpie) Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 02:30:32 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 02:30:32 PM
162 Church/Chapel of St Erat, Inverkeithing Local tradition records that Christianity was brought to Inverkeithing in around 500AD by a holy man called St Erat. An ancient well known as Heriot’s or Erat’s, after which nearby Heriot Street is also named, can be found close to the site of the later medieval parish church. The well is first recorded in a charter of 1219, but the earliest firm reference to it as Eriot’s well can only be dated to 1588. A tradition seems to have developed in the late nineteenth century which suggested that Erat was a follower of St Ninian (one of the most popular medieval Scottish saints, whose shrine was at Whithorn in Galloway), and that he arrived in Inverkeithing sometime in the fifth century AD. The well, and a chapel at nearby Fordell, are the only recorded dedications to a saint named Erat or Theriot in Scotland and there are no contemporary documents nor archaeological evidence that confirm the local tradition. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 02:34:30 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 02:49:21 PM
163 St_Erat_Plaque__3_.jpg Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 02:48:54 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 02:48:54 PM
164 Chapel, Hope Street, Inverkeithing The chapel of Inverkeithing is first mentioned in the 1150s when it belonged to Abbey of Dunfermline. While it has been suggested that this chapel later became the parish church, the source notes that it was located outside of the burgh, so it is likely to have been a different building, possibly related to a hospital that was found close to the west port of the burgh. It was last mentioned in the 1220s and seems to have disappeared sometime thereafter. Inverkeithing was a key station on the pilgrim road to St Andrews and Dunfermline, and the chapel, and hospital, both located close to the west port of the burgh, were probably intended to serve the needs of pilgrims. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 02:51:12 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 02:52:28 PM
165 Parish Church of St Peter, West Tower (Source: Tom Turpie) Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 02:54:57 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 02:54:57 PM
166 St Peter's Parish Church, Inverkeithing The parish church of St Peter is first documented in the twelfth century and by the later middle ages it was a large and impressive building containing eight separate altars dedicated to different saints. An elaborately carved baptismal font dating from c.1400 can still be found in the church. It was hidden at the Reformation and only rediscovered during renovation work in 1806. The west tower was added in the latter part of the fourteenth century, and by the fifteenth century the church had a large nave flanked by aisles on either side. In 1825 a fire swept the building, and the following year the old medieval nave was entirely rebuilt to the designs of James Gillespie Graham. The only part of the medieval church to survive the reconstruction of the 1820s was the tower. Aside from a brief period during the repairs in the early 1800s and in 2006-2007, St Peter’s has remained an active parish church for more than 800 years. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 02:57:44 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:07:25 PM
167 Sketch of ‘Annabella Drummond’s House’, 1894 (Source: John Geddie, The Fringes of Fife (Edinburgh, 1894), p. 41) Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:02:59 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:02:59 PM
168 Greyfriars, Queen Street, Inverkeithing A Franciscan Friary was founded in Inverkeithing in the fourteenth century. The Greyfriars, as they were known from the colour of their cowls, were a significant presence in the burgh, with their buildings and gardens stretching from Queen Street south, down to the harbour. Shortly before the Reformation the buildings and lands of the friars were sold to John Swinton of Luscar in 1559, and the friary itself was in ruins as early as August 1560. The only section of the friary to survive aboveground is the hospitium, the guest accommodation that formed the west wing of the friary. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was known as the Rot(h)mell Inn or the Inns, and a tradition had developed associating it with Anabella Drummond, queen consort of Robert III 1390-1406), who regularly resided in Inverkeithing in the 1390s. In the 1930s the Hospitium was subject to an antiquarian reconstruction by J Wilson Paterson (1932-35) and since then it has important community resource, used first as a community centre and library (1930s-1950s) and then from 1974, the upper storey became a town museum until it closed in 2006. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:06:14 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:06:14 PM
169 The Church of St John (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007) © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for permission to use this image. Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:09:23 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:09:23 PM
170 St John’s, Church Street, Inverkeithing St John’s was founded in 1752 following a split within the congregation of St Peter’s parish church over the choice of a minister by right of patronage. 127 parishioners left the Church of Scotland, acquired a yard with houses on the north side of the burgh and in 1753 built St John’s Church. The building was heightened and widened in 1798-99 to accommodate what, by the 1830s, was a congregation comprising roughly half the burgh’s population. Initially a member of the Burgher Church, they joined the Associate Congregation in 1786, and the United Associate (Secession) Congregation in 1820. From 1780 to 1835 the minister was Reverend Ebenezer Brown, a gifted preacher with a nationwide reputation. In 1847 they became part of the United Presbyterian Church and following the union of the Free Church of Scotland and the United Presbyterian Church in 1900, the church was known as Inverkeithing United Free Church. In 1929 the congregation re-joined the Church of Scotland, and the charge was renamed Inverkeithing St John's Church of Scotland. In 2006 it united with St Peter’s, and is no longer in use for worship. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:11:31 PM Wednesday 22nd of September 2021 12:33:16 PM
171 St Peter’s Episcopal Church (Creative Commons) © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for permission to use this image. Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:13:55 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:13:55 PM
172 St Peter’s Episcopal Church, Hope Street, Inverkeithing In 1899 the bishop of St Andrews, Dunblane and Dunkeld was successfully petitioned for the foundation of an episcopal mission church in Inverkeithing to cater to the community in nearby Jamestown. In 1902 a site in Witch Knowe Park was purchased from the Town Council and in 1903 St Peter’s Episcopal Church was constructed on a site in Hope Street, built to a design by Henry F. Kerr. The chancel was completed in 1910. By 1980 the congregation had declined in numbers, and the church building was split in two with nave converted into an all-purpose hall. The church is now used as a community hall, with services carried out at Inverkeithing High School. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:18:46 PM Wednesday 22nd of September 2021 12:19:28 PM
173 The Church of St John (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007) © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for permission to use this image. Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:23:33 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:23:33 PM
174 View of site from north east. (Source: Amanda Gow (August 2007), © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for permission to use this image. Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:26:52 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:26:52 PM
175 Baptist Church, Inverkeithing In the early 1900s a revival moment swept through Fife and led to the formation Inverkeithing’s Baptist Church. A mission was first planted in the town in 1903, and following its success, particularly among quarry workers, a Church was founded in 1905. They met initially in the Music Hall, finally building their own church in 1917. A new building was constructed on the same site in 1980 and is still active with a congregation of 35-40. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:29:17 PM Wednesday 22nd of September 2021 12:05:14 PM
176 St Peter-in-Chains, Hope Street, Inverkeithing (Source: Creative Commons) Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:30:51 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:30:51 PM
177 St Peter-In-Chains, Inverkeithing In 1913, nearly four centuries after the Protestant Reformation, a Roman Catholic congregation returned to Inverkeithing area with the foundation of the Church of St Peter-in-Chains in Jamestown. The development of the Royal Naval Dockyard at Rosyth after World War II led to the expansion of the congregation and eventually they moved to their current site in Hope Street in 1976-77. From 2010, a single priest served both Inverkeithing and Rosyth and in 2018 the parish was amalgamated with Rosyth and Dunfermline to form a South West Fife Parish, with services shared between the three locations. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:33:12 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:33:12 PM
178 View of the West Gable of the Chapel of St James (Source: Farrell, Stuart, 1998) Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:35:42 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:35:42 PM
179 Chapel of St James, North Queensferry The chapel of St James first enters the documentary record in the early fourteenth century, but it was likely to have been founded sometime in the late twelfth or thirteenth centuries. It was a key station on probably the most important and well used of routes by which pilgrims approached St Andrews and Dunfermline. Most pilgrims from the south would have taken the ferry across the Forth and then stopped to give thanks for safe passage at the chapel. By the later middle ages, it was served by two chaplains who tended to the needs of pilgrims. Following the Reformation, the chapel fell out of use, before sometime in the early eighteenth century the interior of the chapel began to be used as a cemetery by mariners from the North Queensferry Sailors' Society. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:36:54 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:36:54 PM
180 Meeting House, North Queensferry In 1855 Robert Robertson, a local linen merchant, purchased a former inn and converted it into a Meeting House for the villagers of North Queensferry. The name evolved from Meeting House, to Preaching Station and eventually the Mission Hall. It described itself as un-denominational and was served by a series of preachers, paid for by Mr Robertson, including Mr Hughson of the Scottish Coastal Mission Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:42:53 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:42:53 PM
181 Church and War Memorial, North Queensferry Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:49:03 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:49:03 PM
182 North Queensferry Parish Church Until the late nineteenth century the people of North Queensferry worshipped in Inverkeithing or Dunfermline. The first parish church was built in the village in 1878, belonging to the Free Church. The congregation joined the United Free Church in 1900, and the Church of Scotland in 1929, but by 1962 the church was believed to be beyond repair and was demolished. By 1963 a new church was open and in use. By that time the charge was already shared with St John’s in Inverkeithing (1958), and now, since the union of St John’s and St Peter’s in 2006, with what is known as Inverkeithing Parish Church. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:57:34 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 03:57:34 PM
183 Caiplie Coves Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:06:07 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:06:07 PM
184 Caiplie Caves, Anstruther The Caves of Caiplie, or the Coves as they are known locally, are found about 3 miles to the east of Anstruther. They are natural caves carved in the rock face by sea action, which in places have been artificially enlarged. They have been long associated with two saints, Ethernan and his later medieval incarnation, Adrian. The largest cave, known as the ‘Chapel Cave’, contains a number of incised and pecked crosses, many of which have been identified as dating from the early middle ages. A further cave, known as the ‘Mortuary Cave’ is 6 metres to the north. In 1841 a long cist cemetery was found in front of this cave and it contains a Pictish arch symbol cut into the wall. The exact way in which these caves were used in the early middle ages is unclear, but it is likely that they were occupied by hermits. Other crosses date from the High and Later Middle Ages, indicating that the caves continued to have a sacred purpose, perhaps as a stopping place on the pilgrim routes to the Isle of May, Crail and St Andrews. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:09:48 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:09:48 PM
185 Anstruther Church, exterior, from south east (Source: R. Fawcett) Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:11:40 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:11:40 PM
186 Anstruther St Nicholas, 1844, Taylor (Source: R. Fawcett) Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:17:02 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:17:02 PM
187 Anstruther Wester Parish Church The parish church of Anstruther Wester is first documented in 1225 when it was under the patronage of the monks of Isle of May. Dedicated to St Nicholas, patron saint of seafarers, by the later middle ages, the church was a large and complex structure with an impressive west tower added in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. The church itself survived largely intact until the 1840s and was adapted for Protestant use following the Reformation through the abandonment of the choir and, eventually the north aisle. In 1846 it was substantially remodelled, with only the tower surviving from the medieval structure. In 1961 the decision was taken to unite the parish churches of Anstruther Wester and Easter. The Wester church was deconsecrated in 1970 and converted into a Hall named after Hew Scott, a nineteenth-century minister, before changing its name again in 2014 to the Dreel Halls. In combination with the old town hall, since 2014 it has been owned and managed by Anstruther Improvements Association and serves as a community space for events, children’s groups and exhibitions. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:18:47 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:18:47 PM
188 Former site of Chapel of St Ayle in Anstruther Easter (Source: Creative Commons) Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:19:38 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:19:38 PM
189 St Ayle's Chapel, Anstruther Easter Anstruther Easter was part of the parish of Kilrenny until 1634, but by the later middle ages it was home to a growing fishing community. At some time in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth centuries, a chapel-at-ease was constructed to serve them. It was built on land belonging to the Abbey of Balmerino (where the Scottish Fisheries Museum now stands) and administered by the monks. In 1435 an indenture between Balmerino and the bishop of St Andrews, gave the monks the right to use the chapel to administer the sacraments to the local people. This meant that they would no longer have to travel to Kilrenny to baptise their children or get married, and the chaplain would have been able to administer the last rites. The chapel may have fallen out of use before the Reformation and after 1560 houses were built on the site. Some traces of the chapel could still be seen in the 1880s, and they were acquired and converted into the Scottish Fisheries Museum in the 1960s. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:22:33 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:22:33 PM
190 Anstruther Easter, St Adrian’s (Source: © Copyright Richard Sutcliffe and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence) Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:24:36 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:24:36 PM
191 Anstruther Easter Parish Church In 1641 Anstruther Easter was separated from Kilrenny and became the smallest parish by area in Scotland at the time. Construction of a church begun in 1634, and it was ready for use by 1641, with a steeple and bell added in 1644. In a tribute to the town’s fishing heritage, a salmon shaped weather cock was located at the top of the church spire. Renovations were carried out in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with notable features including an east window including stained glass depictions of St. Peter and St. Philip (1905), The Miraculous Catch, Christ Stilling the Storm, St. John and St. Andrew (1907). In 1961 the decision was taken to unite the parish churches of Anstruther Wester and Easter, and the more modern church at Easter was chosen for the new congregation which took the name Anstruther (St Adrian's) Parish Church. In 2016 a further union took places between the Parish Churches of Anstruther and Cellardyke, with the congregation choosing to call the new entity, St Ayle Parish Church. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:26:15 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:26:15 PM
192 Anstruther Erskine United Free Church (2007) (Source: © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd) Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:27:59 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:27:59 PM
193 Erskine United Free Church, Back Dykes, Anstruther Easter In 1818 applied to join the In 1820 the Burgher Presbytery of Perth granted a group called the Managers of the Associate Society of Anstruther £20 to construct a church in the Backdykes area of Anstruther Easter. They had between 40 and 50 members when the new church was opened in 1821. In 1847 they became part of the United Presbyterian Church, and in 1852 built and new, and considerably larger church on the same site, with room for 400 people. This was known as the Anstruther Erskine United Free Church, and had, by 1898, a congregation of around 100. In 1904, following the union with the Free Church (1900), the two congregations in the town were combined and moved to the Chalmers Memorial Church. This meant that the 1852 church building was surplus to requirements and it was sold. Since 1900 the building has been used as a Labour Exchange (1938) and Shirt Factory (1978). It is now part of the East Neuk Community Centre, known as the Erskine Hall (since 1994). Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:30:41 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:30:41 PM
194 Anstruther Baptist Church (2007) (Source: © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd) Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:31:48 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:31:48 PM
195 Baptist Chapel, East Green, Anstruther Easter The church was formed following a visit to the town by James Haldane in 1812, and meetings were held thereafter in the building known as the Tabernacle. In 1839 the congregation split into two sects (Baptists and Paedo-Baptists), who shared the building until 1860 when the Baptists they moved into a new chapel on the East Green. It had seating for 220 people, and was enlarged with a further 120 seats in 1882. In 2003 a union between the Baptist congregations at Pittenweem and Anstruther formed what is now known as the Coastline Community Church. They moved in new premises in Pittenweem, and the chapel in Anstruther is no longer in use. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:35:39 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:35:39 PM
196 Anstruther Evangelical Church (2007) (Source: © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd) Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:36:45 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:36:45 PM
197 Evangelical Church, Crail Road, Anstruther Easter The Congregationalist Church in Anstruther was formed in around 1800, following preaching in the town by James Haldane and Joseph Rate in 1798. They met initially at 28 East Green, a weaver's shop owned by a Mr Thaw, known locally as the Tabernacle meeting house. A number of the group left to form the Baptist Church in 1812, with those remaining moving into a chapel on the Crail Road in 1833, built at a cost of £400. In 1844 there was a split within the congregation, with a large proportion embracing the Evangelical form of worship. The Congregationalists thereafter held meetings in the Town House in Shore Street, and their chapel became the Evangelical church. They joined the Evangelical Union in 1861, and worshipped on the site until 1916 or 1919. At this point the church seems to have disbanded, and the building was secularised. Today is used as a warehouse by Grey & Pringle. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:40:10 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:40:10 PM
198 Chalmers Memorial Church c.1890 (Source: Erskine Beveridge Collection) Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:41:17 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:41:17 PM
199 Chalmer’s Memorial Free Church, Backdykes, Anstruther Easter Following the Great Disruption in 1843, the minister of Anstruther Easter, William Ferrie, joined the Free Church, taking around 300 of his congregation with him. They built a small church in 1844 on a site in Hadfoot Wynd. In 1858 a larger, Gothic-style building was constructed on the same site, designed by the architect John Milne of St Andrews. In 1889 they moved again, this time to the Chalmers Memorial Church. Named after Thomas Chalmers, a key figure in the formation of the Free Church who was born in Anstruther, the new church was designed by the architect David Henry. The Free Church congregation joined with the United Presbyterians in Anstruther in 1900 and subsequently formed the Anstruther Chalmers Memorial United Free Church. After re-joining the Church of Scotland in 1929, it was known as Anstruther Chalmers Memorial, until a link was established with St Adrian’s Parish Church in 1973. Ten years later the church fell out of use, and into a derelict state. It was completely destroyed in a fire in 1991. There is no visible trace of the building, and houses have been built on the site. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:43:50 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:43:50 PM
200 Cellardyke Parish Church (Source: © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd) Image Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:46:54 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:46:54 PM
201 Cellardyke Parish Church The parish church of Cellardyke was constructed in 1882. Two years earlier the arrival of a new minister at the parish church of Kilrenny led to a split in the congregation, with the fisherfolk of Cellardyke joining the Free Church and forming their own parish. In 1929 they rejoined the Church of Scotland. In 2016 a union took place between the Parish Churches of Anstruther and Cellardyke, with the congregation choosing to call the new entity, St Ayle Parish Church. This name was chosen as a tribute to the earliest recorded church in the Anstruther Easter, the fifteenth-century chapel of St Ayle. Since 2019 the congregation has been linked to Crail, sharing facilities and a minister. Immovable heritage Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:50:55 PM Tuesday 15th of June 2021 04:50:55 PM
202 Long- Cist Burial, Isle of May (Source: RCAHMS) Image Wednesday 16th of June 2021 12:29:04 PM Wednesday 16th of June 2021 12:29:04 PM
203 St Ethernan/Adrian’s Chapel, Isle of May The Isle of May was an important early Christian site which included a chapel and shrine from at least the ninth century, and probably earlier. The chapel, as well as a monastic site at Kilrenny and the Caiplie Caves are connected to two saints, Ethernan and Adrian. The name Adrian is a Latinised version of the Gaelic name Ethernan and veneration of Adrian was recorded in the same locations as Ethernan. Adrian is therefore almost certainly an offshoot or adaptation of the cult of St Ethernan. The island was home to a priory of Cluniac/Benedictine Monks from c.1140 to c.1318. After the monks relocated to Pittenweem, the relics on the island continued to attract pilgrims, including a number of Scottish kings and queens, until the Reformation brought the practice to an end. Immovable heritage Wednesday 16th of June 2021 12:31:25 PM Wednesday 16th of June 2021 12:31:25 PM
204 Sketch of the Ruins of the May chapel, 1869 (Source: Mathew Conolly, Fifiana: or Memorials of the East of Fife (Glasgow, 1869), p. 204) Image Wednesday 16th of June 2021 12:32:15 PM Wednesday 16th of June 2021 12:32:15 PM
205 St Ethernan’s Priory, Isle of May The priory of May was founded by David I, sometime around the year 1140. It was dedicated to St Ethernan, and was affiliated to a mother house located at Reading in Berkshire. The monks were initially Cluniacs, followers of a reformed and stricter version of the Benedictine rule, before following the lead of their mother house and reverting back to the general Benedictine rule sometime after 1207. It is likely that the monks were attracted to the site on the Isle of May because it had an existing church and a connection to an important local saint. The excavation of the site in the 1990s found that there was already quite a substantial building on the site when monks arrived in the twelfth century, and that it was not until c.1250 that they constructed their own larger church. Of this church, the main survival today is the west wing, which was converted to secular use in the sixteenth-century. One other important discovery during the excavation was the grave of a young man dating from the early fourteenth century, which included a scallop shell placed in his mouth. This was a clear indication that the man, who had been buried in a prestigious location close to the high altar, had travelled to Santiago de Compostela on pilgrimage. Immovable heritage Wednesday 16th of June 2021 12:33:32 PM Wednesday 16th of June 2021 12:33:32 PM
206 Pre historic map key Image Thursday 17th of June 2021 04:04:48 PM Thursday 17th of June 2021 04:04:48 PM
207 Dysart, St Serf's Cave (Source: R. Fawcett) Image Friday 18th of June 2021 01:35:33 PM Friday 18th of June 2021 01:35:33 PM
208 St Serf’s Cave, Dysart St Serf’s Cave in Dysart has been connected to that important local saint since the early middle ages. Serf had dedications across Western Fife, Kinross and Clackmannanshire, and his relics could be found in Culross. The main source of information on the saint, the Vita St Servani, was composed sometime in the thirteenth century, probably in Culross, and it includes the first documentation of th link between Dysart and St Serf. According to the Vita, the cave was regularly used by Serf as a hermitage and he performed two miracles in it. The first involved the saint transforming water into wine, while the second was theological battle of wits between Serf and the Devil. The cave contains three natural chambers, into which benches have been carved, while steps and an ashlar door and a window between two of the chambers were added at a much later date. In the later middle ages there was a chaplain attached the cave who tended to the needs of visiting pilgrims. The cave is known locally as the Rud Chapel, or Chapel of the Holy Rood, although there is no medieval evidence to support this dedication. Immovable heritage Friday 18th of June 2021 01:38:05 PM Friday 18th of June 2021 01:38:05 PM
209 (1) Engraving of the Old Church of St Serf’s, 1853 (Source: William Muir, ed, Notices of the Local Records of Dysart (Glasgow: Maitland Club 1853), p. 22. Image Friday 18th of June 2021 01:41:07 PM Friday 18th of June 2021 01:41:07 PM
210 St Serf’s Old Parish Church, Shore Road, Dysart The church of St Serf in Dysart first appears in the documentary record in the 1220s, although it is clear that it had existed long before then. In the fifteenth century, it was expanded into a large and impressive structure, including the eight-storey high tower. The striking tower has an unusual martial appearance, with shot holes in the two lowest storeys of the south side, and may well have been part of the coastal defences along northern shore of the Forth. The church and its high altar were dedicated to St Serf, and there were several further altars in the church dedicated to St James, Anne, Mary and Magnus. After the Reformation the congregation used only part of the nave of the medieval church, abandoning the aisles and the chancel. The south chancel aisle was separated from the rest of the church and became (or more likely continued as) the burial place of the Sinclair family. In 1802-03 the congregation moved to the newly built Barony Church, and St Serf’s was abandoned. Immovable heritage Friday 18th of June 2021 01:43:14 PM Friday 18th of June 2021 01:43:14 PM
211 St Serf’s Tower and the Pan Ha (Source: Creative Commons) Image Friday 18th of June 2021 01:45:58 PM Friday 18th of June 2021 01:45:58 PM
212 1780 drawing of the chapel. (Source: Anne Watters, Kirkcaldy's Churches: Brief Histories) Image Friday 18th of June 2021 01:50:34 PM Friday 18th of June 2021 01:50:34 PM
213 Chapel of St Dennis, Pan Ha', Dysart A chapel dedicated to St Denis/Denys, one of the patron saints of France, is thought to have been located at Pan Ha' in Dysart. Writing in 1794, George Muirhead noted the local tradition that the chapel had been part of a Dominican Friary. Cowan and Easson concluded that there is no reliable evidence there was ever a Dominican house in Dysart, although it has been speculated that they owned property in the town. The ruins of the building were converted into a forge shortly before 1794, and an Ordnance Survey of 1954 found some old walls, but no remains of a chapel. There is no firm evidence for the chapel’s existence, with the earliest references dating to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Immovable heritage Friday 18th of June 2021 01:51:35 PM Friday 18th of June 2021 01:51:35 PM
214 United Presbyterian Church, Normand Road (Source: Stuart Mee, Dec. 2007) Image Friday 18th of June 2021 01:53:16 PM Friday 18th of June 2021 01:53:16 PM
215 United Presbyterian Church, Relief Street, Dysart A congregation belonging to the Relief Church was founded in Dysart sometime in the 1760s. In 1772 they opened their own church, which later became known as the Auld House, in a former malt barn on Relief Street. It cost £600 and was capable of sitting 650 people. In 1847 the congregation joined the United Presbyterian Church. By 1867 they had outgrown the Auld House and moved to a new church on Normand Road at a cost of £2600. The old building was sold and turned into a handloom factory. In 1900 the UP Church joined with the Free Church to become the United Free Church, and in 1929, when most United Free congregations rejoined the Church of Scotland, they chose to remain independent. The church closed in 2009 and was sold in 2014. Immovable heritage Friday 18th of June 2021 01:56:19 PM Friday 18th of June 2021 01:56:19 PM
216 Anti-Burgher Church, Pathhead The Anti-Burgher Congregation in Dysart was formed in 1747. In the early years they met in an old barn before constructing their own church in 1763 at a cost of £100. It was capable of sitting 795. It was located in Pathhead, which, although now in Kirkcaldy, was in the parish of Dysart at the time. In 1820 the minister of the Anti-Burgher Church, Thomas Gray, opposed the union with the Burgher’s, losing around 2/5 of his congregation in the process to the new Union Church in Kirkcaldy. In 1845 his church was one of the two dissenting chapels in the parish noted by David Murray, the minister of the new Barony Church. He estimated they had a combined congregation of 800-900. In 1852 the congregation voted by a majority of 40 to 6 to merge with the Free Church, after which they became known as Dunnikier Free Church. In 1901 the church was sold and the congregation moved to a new building on Dunnikier Road. The church was demolished in 1967. Immovable heritage Friday 18th of June 2021 02:02:14 PM Friday 18th of June 2021 02:02:14 PM
217 Dysart Barony Church (Source: Richard Fawcett, 2012) Image Friday 18th of June 2021 02:04:47 PM Friday 18th of June 2021 02:04:47 PM
218 Barony Church, Normand Road, Dysart In 1802-03 a new parish church was constructed in Dysart and the congregation moved from St Serf’s in an event known locally as the year of the big flittin. Known as the Barony Church and capable of sitting 1600 people, it was located to the north of the old parish church at the top of the town. Designed by Alexander Laing, David Murray described it as a neat plain building in 1845, by which point the congregation was around 1200. A hall was added to the building in 1932. In 1972 the congregation merged with St. Serf's United Free Church to become Dysart Parish Church and moved to the latter’s building in the West Port. Until 1997 it was used by the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), and recently it has been converted into affordable housing as part of Fife Historic Buildings Trust project (2008-2014). Immovable heritage Friday 18th of June 2021 02:06:07 PM Friday 18th of June 2021 02:06:07 PM
219 Dysart St Clair Parish Church (Source: Richard Fawcett, 2012) Image Friday 18th of June 2021 02:07:01 PM Friday 18th of June 2021 02:07:01 PM
220 St Clair Parish Church, West Port, Dysart Following the Great Disruption in 1843, the minister of Dysart, John Thomson, and a large part of the congregation joined the Free Church. Their first church was opened the following year (1844) on the corner of West Quality Street and Fitzroy Street. By 1874 the congregation had outgrown the building and a new church was constructed in the West Port. The old church was sold, and by 1890 had become a Masonic Lodge. In the north transept of the new church there is a mural, uncovered in 2004, believed to have been painted by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1901. Following the union between the Free and United Presbyterian churches in 1900 it became known as St. Serf’s United Free. In 1929 the congregation re-joined the Church of Scotland, and in 1972 they merged with the Barony Church to become Dysart Parish Church- using the building in the West Port. In 2012 there was a union between the congregations of Dysart and Viewforth, and the resulting church is known as Dysart St Clair Parish Church, still based in the church in the West Port. Immovable heritage Friday 18th of June 2021 02:09:29 PM Friday 18th of June 2021 02:09:29 PM
221 Dysart Carmelite Convent (Source: Stuart Mee, Dec. 2007) Sound Friday 18th of June 2021 02:10:34 PM Friday 18th of June 2021 02:10:34 PM
222 Carmelite Convent, Dysart In May 1930 Dysart House, first built in 1756, was sold to Mrs Elsa af Wetterstedt Mitchell, and a month later she gifted it to the trustees for the Sisters of the Carmelite Community. They established a closed community with room for 24 nuns. The nuns belong to the order known as the Discalced or Teresian Carmelites, who were formed in the sixteenth century by St Teresa of Avila. The convent is dedicated to St Thérèse of Lisieux, a Carmelite nun who died in 1897. In the 1980s it became an Infirmary Carmel, dedicated to caring for sick and older nuns of the order. Mass and other services are now held in the convent for members of the public. Immovable heritage Friday 18th of June 2021 02:14:16 PM Friday 18th of June 2021 02:14:16 PM
223 c.300 – 400 Arrival of Christianity in Scotland Christianity was introduced to Southern Scotland during the Roman occupation of Britain. It is possible that some Christian communities survived the departure of the Romans and the subsequent period of migration and political change. Event Monday 05th of July 2021 12:19:43 PM Monday 05th of July 2021 02:20:28 PM
224 c.400 – 600 First Evidence for Christianity in Fife The earliest evidence for Christianity in Fife comes from Christian symbols on carved stones and in caves. Early examples include the carvings on the Skeith Stone (which was found near Kilrenny) and cross markings at Caiplie Caves. These carvings probably date from the fifth and sixth centuries, and suggest that Christian missionaries were active in Fife at this time. St Serf (who is often associated with the areas around Loch Leven and Culross) and St Ethernan (who was supposedly buried on the Isle of May) were perhaps part of these early missions. Event Monday 05th of July 2021 12:24:12 PM Wednesday 14th of July 2021 12:00:07 PM
225 Two spoons with Christian symbols from a hoard found at Traprain Law, probably dating from about 410 AD. (Credit: Tyssil / Wikimedia) Silver from the Traprain Law Treasure, East Lothian, Scotland. Bowls of river spoons. Image Monday 05th of July 2021 12:28:48 PM Wednesday 14th of July 2021 12:24:52 PM
226 c.600 – 800 Missionaries from Iona and Northumbria The seventh and eighth centuries saw increasing conversion of the Picts (who then inhabited Fife and much of Scotland north of the Forth). Missionaries seem to have come from the island of Iona in the west, and from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria in the south. Event Monday 05th of July 2021 12:30:22 PM Wednesday 14th of July 2021 12:23:36 PM
227 747 - Early Evidence for a Religious Centre at St Andrews St Andrews was an important religious centre from an early date. There seems to have already been a monastery here in 747 when the death of the abbot Tuathalán was recorded. The spectacular stone monument known as the St Andrews sarcophagus probably also dates from the eighth century. Its carvings show similarities with religious art from Continental Europe. Meeting Monday 05th of July 2021 12:32:57 PM Wednesday 14th of July 2021 12:42:58 PM
228 1978 Fife’s First Female Church of Scotland Minister In the late 1960s the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland agreed that women could be ordained as ministers on the same terms as men. The first woman to serve as a Church of Scotland minister in Fife was Mary Morrison, who began her ministry at Townhill in Dunfermline in 1978. Event Monday 05th of July 2021 12:37:14 PM Wednesday 28th of July 2021 08:40:59 PM
229 1969 Scotland’s First Cardinal Since the Reformation Since the sixteenth century there had been no cardinals resident in Scotland. However, in 1969 Gordon Gray, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, was made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI. Meeting Monday 05th of July 2021 12:38:45 PM Wednesday 28th of July 2021 08:51:11 PM
231 Early Christian carvings on the Skeith Stone. (Credit: James Allan / Wikimedia) Image Wednesday 14th of July 2021 11:58:47 AM Wednesday 14th of July 2021 11:58:47 AM
232 St Oran's Chapel on the island of Iona. (Credit: Libasstref / Wikimedia) Image Wednesday 14th of July 2021 12:22:36 PM Wednesday 14th of July 2021 12:22:36 PM
233 The early medieval St Andrews Sarcophagus. (Credit: Historic Environment Scotland) 3D Object Wednesday 14th of July 2021 12:29:23 PM Wednesday 14th of July 2021 12:31:23 PM
234 Reject - Detail St And Sarc Image Wednesday 14th of July 2021 12:35:44 PM Wednesday 14th of July 2021 12:40:58 PM
235 Detail of a hunting scene on the St Andrews Sarcophagus. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Wednesday 14th of July 2021 12:42:22 PM Wednesday 14th of July 2021 12:42:22 PM
236 c.900 – 1050 Céli Dé (or Culdee) Communities Established in Fife In the ninth and tenth centuries a new monastic movement known as the Céli Dé arrived from Ireland. Céli Dé means servants of God and is sometimes spelt as ‘Culdee’ in English. Communities of Céli Dé were established at St Andrews and Loch Leven, as well as several other locations in Scotland. Event Wednesday 14th of July 2021 12:51:27 PM Thursday 15th of July 2021 12:07:36 PM
237 St Serf's Inch on Loch Leven. This island was home to an early Culdee community. (Credit: Mike Pennington / Wikimedia) Image Wednesday 14th of July 2021 12:55:24 PM Wednesday 14th of July 2021 12:55:24 PM
238 The medieval religious precinct at St Andrews viewed from the air. (Credit: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Wednesday 14th of July 2021 01:13:55 PM Wednesday 14th of July 2021 01:13:55 PM
239 965 First Recorded Pilgrims to St Andrews By the tenth century St Andrews had become one of the most important churches in the kingdom of the Scots. In 965 the brother of the King of Tara died while on pilgrimage to St Andrews. This incident is the earliest evidence for St Andrews as a place of pilgrimage. Event Wednesday 14th of July 2021 01:15:54 PM Wednesday 14th of July 2021 01:21:16 PM
240 The Forth Bridge seen from the air near North Queensferry. The Victorian railway bridge crosses the Forth close to the route of Queen Margaret’s historic ferry. (Credit: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Wednesday 14th of July 2021 03:47:40 PM Wednesday 14th of July 2021 03:48:23 PM
241 c.1070 Queen Margaret Supports Religious Change Around 1070 King Malcolm III’s wife Margaret (later known as St Margaret of Scotland) brought a group of Benedictine monks to Dunfermline. The Benedictines were the commonest monastic order in Western Europe at that time. Over succeeding years Margaret tried to bring religious practices in Scotland in line with customs in Continental Europe. Margaret also encouraged pilgrimage to St Andrews, and set up a new ferry and hostel for pilgrims crossing the Forth. This was the origin of North and South Queensferry. Event Wednesday 14th of July 2021 03:51:56 PM Wednesday 14th of July 2021 03:51:56 PM
242 The ruins of the chapter house at the former Cistercian monastery at Balmerino. (Credit: Ed Marin / Wikimedia) Image Wednesday 14th of July 2021 08:14:18 PM Wednesday 14th of July 2021 08:14:18 PM
243 c.1130 – 1230 New Religious Orders Introduced to Fife The late eleventh and early twelfth centuries saw a wish for monks to follow stricter rules. A number of new religious orders such as the Cluniacs and the Cistercians were founded, who led a more austere way of life. The Scottish royal family proved enthusiastic supporters of the new monastic orders and helped introduce them to Fife. The period between about 1130 and 1230 saw the Cluniacs established on the Isle of May, new Cistercian monasteries founded at Balmerino and Culross, and a Tironesian Abbey set up at Lindores. At this time the Augustinian order also founded communities of canons at St Andrews, Loch Leven and Inchcolm. Event Wednesday 14th of July 2021 08:15:42 PM Monday 26th of July 2021 04:06:25 PM
244 The parish church at Markinch. The church tower is thought to have been built during the reign of David I. (Credit: Mcwesty / Wikimedia) Image Thursday 15th of July 2021 09:46:22 AM Thursday 15th of July 2021 09:46:22 AM
245 c.1124 – 1153 David I Reorganises Scottish Parishes and Dioceses King David I (one of the sons of Margaret and Malcolm III) supported major changes in the Scottish Church. He increased the number of bishops and gave them oversight of dioceses organised in a similar fashion to Continental Europe. He also backed a rearranging of Scottish parishes, to make them function more like parishes in France and England. The parish boundaries established in Fife at this time survived for many centuries, and in some places still affect the shape of parishes today. Event Thursday 15th of July 2021 09:58:43 AM Monday 26th of July 2021 04:05:39 PM
246 Reconstruction of St Andrews Cathedral in 1318. The older church of St Rule can be seen on the right. (Credit: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Thursday 15th of July 2021 10:10:01 AM Thursday 15th of July 2021 10:10:01 AM
247 c.1160 – 1318 A New Cathedral is Built at St Andrews In the 1160s work began on a grand new cathedral at St Andrews (to replace the smaller church now known as St Rule’s which was then in use). The new cathedral was the largest roofed space constructed in Scotland in the Middle Ages. It took more than 150 years to build, and was eventually consecrated in 1318. The consecration ceremony (when it was officially blessed) was attended by King Robert the Bruce. Event Thursday 15th of July 2021 10:11:49 AM Monday 26th of July 2021 04:07:16 PM
248 The tower of the old parish church of St Michael at Cupar. St Michael’s was one of the many churches rebuilt in Fife during the late Middle Ages, partly to make space for more chapels and side altars for masses for the dead. (Credit: Jim Bain / Wikimedia) Image Thursday 15th of July 2021 10:44:47 AM Thursday 15th of July 2021 10:44:47 AM
249 1215 The Roman Catholic Church Officially Backs the Doctrine of Purgatory In 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council officially declared the Roman Catholic Church’s belief in the doctrine of purgatory. This was the idea that most people did not proceed directly to heaven when they died, but spent time in an unpleasant waiting area where they suffered and were purged of their sins. To lessen the time a soul spent in purgatory it was important to lead a good life, sincerely confess sins, and have prayers and masses said after death. In the late Middle Ages a number of churches in Fife were adapted to make space for more altars where chaplains could perform masses and prayers for the dead. Most ranks of Scottish society from kings down to craftsmen invested in prayers for the souls of the dead. Event Thursday 15th of July 2021 10:46:24 AM Thursday 15th of July 2021 10:46:24 AM
250 The medieval nave of Dunfermline Abbey. Dunfermline was the main burial place for the Scottish royal family from the time of Margaret's death until the early fourteenth century. (Credit: Otter / Wikimedia) Image Thursday 15th of July 2021 11:06:05 AM Thursday 15th of July 2021 11:06:05 AM
251 1249 – 1250 Margaret Becomes a Saint Queen Margaret (the wife of Malcolm III) seems to have been regarded as a saint by the residents of Fife soon after her death in 1093. Miracles were recorded at Margaret’s tomb in Dunfermline in the twelfth and early thirteenth century. Margaret was formally canonised by Pope Innocent IV in 1250 following a long campaign supported by the Scottish and English kings. Event Thursday 15th of July 2021 11:07:59 AM Monday 26th of July 2021 04:08:18 PM
252 A late medieval image of St Andrew with his traditional X-shaped cross. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Thursday 15th of July 2021 11:46:30 AM Thursday 15th of July 2021 11:46:30 AM
253 1320 The Declaration of Arbroath Describes St Andrew as Patron Saint of the Scots The origins of the close connection between St Andrew and the people of Scotland go back into the early Middle Ages. However, during the wars between Scotland and England in the 1290s and 1300s a particular emphasis was placed on St Andrew’s role as a protector of the Scots. In 1320, the famous letter known as the Declaration of Arbroath referred to St Andrew as the ‘patron for ever’ of the Scottish people. At this time St Andrews Cathedral was increasingly portrayed as a symbol of the Scottish nation. Event Thursday 15th of July 2021 11:49:03 AM Thursday 15th of July 2021 11:49:03 AM
254 Remains of the late medieval church of the Dominican friars in St Andrews. (Credit: Bess Rhodes) Image Thursday 15th of July 2021 12:04:27 PM Thursday 15th of July 2021 12:04:27 PM
255 1348 Friars Settle in Fife During the thirteenth century some people felt that monasteries had become too wealthy. In response new religious orders of friars were created. The friars were committed to extreme poverty and earned much of their income from begging. Unlike many monks who shut themselves away from society, the friars spent a lot of time out in the world preaching and supporting the poor. The Franciscans (founded by St Francis) and the Dominicans (founded by St Dominic) were two of the largest orders of friars. The Franciscans and Dominicans seem to have arrived in Scotland in the thirteenth century. The first evidence for the friars in Fife comes from the founding of a Dominican friary at Cupar in 1348. Further Dominican houses were established at St Monans and St Andrews. The Franciscans set up communities at Inverkeithing and St Andrews. Event Thursday 15th of July 2021 12:14:30 PM Thursday 15th of July 2021 12:14:30 PM
256 The medieval church at St Monans built by David II. (Credit: Jim Bain / Wikimedia) Image Thursday 15th of July 2021 12:29:21 PM Thursday 15th of July 2021 12:29:21 PM
257 1362 – 1370 David II Rebuilds the Church at St Monans In the 1360s King David II spent a large amount of money rebuilding the church at St Monans. The king did this because in 1346 he had survived being severely wounded by an arrow in the face at the Battle of Neville’s Cross (where the English defeated the Scots). After going on pilgrimage to St Monans the arrow miraculously removed itself from the king’s head. To give thanks for his healing David II paid to build a much larger church in honour of St Monan. Event Thursday 15th of July 2021 12:32:58 PM Monday 26th of July 2021 04:09:01 PM
258 The ceremonial mace of St Salvator's College (one of the three colleges at the medieval University of St Andrews). The mace was commissioned by Bishop James Kennedy in 1461. (Credit: Sam Taylor / University of St Andrews) Image Monday 26th of July 2021 03:17:09 PM Monday 26th of July 2021 03:17:09 PM
259 1410 – 1414 The University of St Andrews is Founded During the late Middle Ages universities increasingly took over responsiblity for higher education. In 1410 a group of churchmen established a university in St Andrews (which was already an important place of learning with many scholars attached to the Cathedral and other religious sites). The university soon received official backing, and in 1413 Pope Benedict XIII confirmed St Andrews’ status as a university. When the official papal documents arrived in St Andrews the church bells rang out in celebration, and there were religious services, parties, and bonfires. St Andrews was Scotland’s first university. Later in the Middle Ages universities were also founded at Glasgow and Aberdeen. Event Monday 26th of July 2021 03:19:34 PM Monday 26th of July 2021 04:22:42 PM
260 Reconstruction showing the possible appearance of the parish church of Holy Trinity in St Andrews, c.1559. (Credit: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Monday 26th of July 2021 04:15:22 PM Monday 26th of July 2021 04:15:22 PM
261 c.1400 – 1559 Expanding Churches The fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries saw major building projects at many Fife churches. New churches were built and old ones remodelled. The parish churches at St Andrews and Cupar were rebuilt at this time. Late medieval bell towers survive at both these churches, and at Anstruther Wester, Inverkeithing, and Kilrenny. This building boom was made possible by donations from churchmen and lay people anxious to save their souls by giving generously to the church. Event Monday 26th of July 2021 04:19:50 PM Monday 26th of July 2021 04:19:50 PM
262 The street called Greyfriars Garden now covers where the Observant Franciscan friary once stood in St Andrews. (Credit: Bess Rhodes) Image Monday 26th of July 2021 04:42:27 PM Monday 26th of July 2021 04:42:27 PM
263 1453 – 1456 The Observant Franciscans Arrive in Fife Like many religious orders, the Franciscans (or grey friars) grew slightly less strict over time. This concerned some people, and led to the establishing of the Observant Franciscan movement. The Observant Franciscans had unusually strict rules on poverty and believed they were following more closely the teachings of St Francis. In the early 1450s an Observant Franciscan friary was founded in St Andrews by Bishop James Kennedy. Event Monday 26th of July 2021 04:44:00 PM Monday 26th of July 2021 04:44:00 PM
264 A fourteenth-century illustration of plague burials in Tournai. Similarly rushed burials probably took place in Fife. (Credit: Pierart dou Tielt / Wikimedia) Image Monday 26th of July 2021 06:21:42 PM Monday 26th of July 2021 06:21:42 PM
265 1349 The Black Death In 1349 the Black Death (probably a severe epidemic of bubonic plague) reached Fife. Churchmen were particularly likely to catch the disease as they often tended to the sick and dying. The communal lifestyles of monasteries also proved ideal for spreading infection. At least twenty-four canons at St Andrews Cathedral died of plague (this was at a time when there were about forty canons attached to the cathedral). Following the 1349 outbreak, waves of plague repeatedly swept through Scotland until the middle of the seventeenth century. The constant exposure to sudden death may have encouraged the focus on salvation and the afterlife which characterised late medieval Scottish society. Event Monday 26th of July 2021 06:23:04 PM Monday 26th of July 2021 06:24:18 PM
266 Pavel Kravar was burned at the stake beside the market cross in St Andrews. A saltire in the cobbles on Market Street shows where the cross once stood. (Credit: Bess Rhodes) Image Tuesday 27th of July 2021 12:32:48 PM Tuesday 27th of July 2021 12:36:42 PM
267 1433 Hussite Preacher Burned as a Heretic In the early 1430s a doctor named Pavel Kravar (sometimes known as Paul Craw in Scotland) was burned for heresy in the centre of St Andrews. Kravar was from Bohemia and had tried to gain support in Fife for the Hussite movement, which then had a significant number of followers in Eastern Europe. The Hussites wanted major changes to religion and society (among other beliefs they supported the redistribution of church property and severe punishments for sinners). This led them to be regarded as heretics by the Roman Catholic authorities. During the early fifteenth century Fife’s religious leaders were concerned about the possibility of heresy spreading from England and Continental Europe and so took swift action against Kravar. Event Tuesday 27th of July 2021 12:38:40 PM Tuesday 27th of July 2021 12:38:40 PM
268 Reconstruction of the chapter house at St Andrews Cathedral in the late Middle Ages. (Credit: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Tuesday 27th of July 2021 12:57:08 PM Tuesday 27th of July 2021 12:57:08 PM
269 1472 St Andrews Becomes an Archbishopric The bishops of St Andrews had for centuries claimed to be the most important churchmen in Scotland. In 1472 their special status was officially recognised by the pope, when the bishopric of St Andrews was raised into an archbishopric. The new archbishops had authority over the other Scottish dioceses. However, St Andrews’ power was slightly reduced in the 1490s when Glasgow also became an archbishopric and given control over Argyll, Dunblane, Dunkeld and Galloway. Event Tuesday 27th of July 2021 01:00:33 PM Tuesday 27th of July 2021 01:00:33 PM
270 The young King Edward VI of England. Portrait perhaps by William Scrots. (Credit: The Met / Wikimedia) Image Tuesday 27th of July 2021 01:36:19 PM Tuesday 27th of July 2021 01:36:19 PM
271 1543 – 1551 The Rough Wooing The 1540s saw fighting between Scotland and England. The conflict was partly driven by the English government’s wish to arrange a marriage between Edward VI and the young Mary Queen of Scots (which is why this period is sometimes called the Rough Wooing). However, the war rapidly acquired a religious aspect, as English leaders tried to impose Protestantism on Scotland. Some residents of Fife who supported religious change backed the English. Meanwhile other Scots looked to Roman Catholic France for help. During the conflict the English attacked coastal Fife, including burning Balmerino Abbey. Event Tuesday 27th of July 2021 01:37:58 PM Tuesday 31st of August 2021 10:52:13 AM
272 A wreath and the letters PH marking the site of Patrick Hamilton's execution on North Street in St Andrews. (Credit: Bess Rhodes) Image Tuesday 27th of July 2021 02:05:21 PM Tuesday 27th of July 2021 02:05:21 PM
273 1528 – 1558 Protestants Burned as Heretics Between the 1520s and the 1550s the Roman Catholic authorities in Fife severely punished a number of Protestant sympathisers. No less than four Protestants were burned at the stake in St Andrews. The first and most high profile of these was Patrick Hamilton, whose execution in 1528 was so badly mishandled that he took six hours to die. Henry Forrest, George Wishart, and Walter Myln also suffered the death penalty for spreading reformist beliefs. Event Tuesday 27th of July 2021 02:06:48 PM Tuesday 27th of July 2021 02:08:00 PM
274 Townhill village on the edge of Dunfermline. (Credit: The Majestic Fool / Wikimedia) Image Wednesday 28th of July 2021 08:40:17 PM Wednesday 28th of July 2021 08:42:24 PM
275 Cardinal Gray's coat of arms on a window in St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh. (Credit: Sheila1988 / Wikimedia) Image Wednesday 28th of July 2021 08:50:25 PM Wednesday 28th of July 2021 08:50:25 PM
276 St Paul's Roman Catholic Church in Glenrothes in 1962. St Paul's was one of several new Roman Catholic churches built in Fife during the mid-twentieth century. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Wednesday 28th of July 2021 09:03:41 PM Wednesday 28th of July 2021 09:03:41 PM
277 1962 – 1965 Second Vatican Council The Second Vatican Council (held in the Vatican in Rome) sought to modernise Roman Catholicism. It agreed major changes to Roman Catholic worship. One of the most notable alterations was ending the use of Latin for ordinary services. The interiors of several Roman Catholic churches in Fife were remodelled following the Second Vatican Council to align with new policies on how the Mass should be celebrated. Event Wednesday 28th of July 2021 09:08:30 PM Wednesday 28th of July 2021 09:08:30 PM
278 Christmas party in St Andrews in 1947. Father Christmas is dressed in the traditional red gown worn by St Andrews undergraduates. (Credit: George Cowie / University of St Andrews) Image Thursday 29th of July 2021 08:27:17 AM Thursday 29th of July 2021 08:27:17 AM
279 1958 Christmas Becomes a Public Holiday During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Presbyterian opposition to Christmas reduced. In 1958 Christmas became a public holiday in Scotland. Increasingly Fife’s Church of Scotland congregations held special services for Christmas Day. Event Thursday 29th of July 2021 08:28:39 AM Thursday 29th of July 2021 08:28:39 AM
280 A naval inspection at Crail Aerodrome in about 1940. Early in the Second World War a chapel was built at Crail Airfield for the service personnel. (Credit: George Cowie / University of St Andrews) Image Thursday 29th of July 2021 08:41:29 AM Thursday 29th of July 2021 08:41:29 AM
281 1939 – 1945 Second World War During the Second World War the armed forces expanded and many people moved around the country. New places of worship were established in Fife for service personnel from Britain and overseas. A significant number of Polish troops were stationed in Fife, leading to a growth in Catholic congregations in the area. Event Thursday 29th of July 2021 08:43:53 AM Thursday 29th of July 2021 08:43:53 AM
282 Hope Park Church in St Andrews in about 1860. Hope Park was one of many United Free Church congregations to join the Church of Scotland in 1929. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Thursday 29th of July 2021 10:58:07 AM Thursday 29th of July 2021 10:58:07 AM
283 1929 The United Free Church and the Church of Scotland Join Together At a joint assembly in Edinburgh the United Free Church agreed to merge with the Church of Scotland. This meant that many places in Fife now had multiple Church of Scotland congregations. Some continued as independent congregations, but others amalgamated. As a result a number of former church buildings were converted. Several Fife churches became halls or other community spaces. Event Thursday 29th of July 2021 10:59:13 AM Thursday 29th of July 2021 10:59:13 AM
284 The Houses of Parliament at Westminster in 1919. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Thursday 29th of July 2021 11:13:06 AM Thursday 29th of July 2021 11:13:06 AM
285 1921 The Church of Scotland Act is Passed After centuries of the controversy about the relationship between church and state, the British Parliament passed the Church of Scotland Act. This gave the Church of Scotland freedom to decide spiritual matters and church appointments without government interference. The new legislation resolved some of the bitter debates which had divided many Fife communities in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Event Thursday 29th of July 2021 11:14:03 AM Thursday 29th of July 2021 11:14:03 AM
286 Local dignitaries place crosses in the ground outside Holy Trinity Church in St Andrews on Armistice Day in 1936. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Thursday 29th of July 2021 11:22:40 AM Thursday 29th of July 2021 11:22:40 AM
287 1914 – 1918 First World War Thousands of Fife residents served in the armed forces during the First World War. Many were killed. After the war communities across Fife put up memorials to the dead. These war memorials are frequently located in churches. Others are free-standing, but often still take the shape of a cross. Fife churches also became the scene of Armistice Day commemorations where the sacrifices made in wartime are remembered. Event Thursday 29th of July 2021 11:23:45 AM Thursday 29th of July 2021 11:23:45 AM
288 The United Free Church in Leuchars in 1903. This church was built in the 1890s for a Free Church congregation. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Thursday 29th of July 2021 06:08:06 PM Thursday 29th of July 2021 06:08:06 PM
289 1900 The United Presbyterian Church and the Free Church of Scotland Join Together The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had seen several groups leave the Church of Scotland. In 1900 two of the largest of these break-away denominations joined together. Following several years of negotiations, the majority of members of the Free Church of Scotland joined with the United Presbyterian Church. Together they created the United Free Church of Scotland. Event Thursday 29th of July 2021 06:10:13 PM Thursday 29th of July 2021 06:10:13 PM
290 The Christmas dinner at St Mary's was part of a wider effort to revive ceremonies associated with dining at the University of St Andrews. Sung graces and blessings were also reintroduced - as seen in this setting composed for the university by Sir Alastair Campbell Mackenzie in 1894. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Thursday 29th of July 2021 06:20:35 PM Thursday 29th of July 2021 06:20:35 PM
291 1887 The University of St Andrews Celebrates Christmas For several centuries the University of St Andrews had not celebrated Christmas. However, in 1887 the university decided to have a communal Christmas dinner at St Mary’s College. The menu included hare soup, roast beef, and plum pudding. Event Thursday 29th of July 2021 06:22:02 PM Thursday 29th of July 2021 06:22:02 PM
292 Bishop John Strain - the first Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh after the Roman Catholic hierarchy was reintroduced to Scotland. (Credit: Wikimedia) Image Thursday 29th of July 2021 06:39:59 PM Thursday 29th of July 2021 06:39:59 PM
293 1878 Restoration of Scotland’s Roman Catholic Hierarchy As discrimination against Roman Catholics reduced, the Papacy decided to re-establish a traditional church hierarchy in Scotland. Six Roman Catholic dioceses were created. Except for Glasgow, all the new dioceses were subject to the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh. Event Thursday 29th of July 2021 06:41:18 PM Thursday 29th of July 2021 06:41:18 PM
294 Access Geolocated Friday 30th of July 2021 09:55:50 AM Friday 30th of July 2021 09:55:50 AM
295 Crime Geolocated Friday 30th of July 2021 09:56:15 AM Friday 30th of July 2021 09:56:15 AM
296 Education Geolocated Friday 30th of July 2021 09:56:38 AM Friday 30th of July 2021 09:58:55 AM
297 Employment Geolocated Friday 30th of July 2021 09:57:03 AM Friday 30th of July 2021 09:59:19 AM
298 Health Geolocated Friday 30th of July 2021 09:57:29 AM Friday 30th of July 2021 09:57:29 AM
299 Housing Geolocated Friday 30th of July 2021 09:58:00 AM Friday 30th of July 2021 09:58:00 AM
300 Income Sound Friday 30th of July 2021 09:59:50 AM Friday 30th of July 2021 09:59:50 AM
301 The United Free Church in Newport in about 1903. This church was one of several founded in the nineteenth century by congregations who broke away from their traditional parish churches over the question of lay patronage. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Friday 30th of July 2021 10:34:07 AM Friday 30th of July 2021 10:34:07 AM
302 1874 Lay Patronage Abolished in the Church of Scotland Since the early 1700s the role of lay patrons in church appointments had been a major cause of discontent in the Church of Scotland, and had triggered several splits in the church. In 1874 the British Parliament agreed that Church of Scotland congregations should have the right to choose their own ministers, rather than powerful landowners making appointments to parishes. Event Friday 30th of July 2021 10:56:40 AM Friday 30th of July 2021 10:56:40 AM
303 St Andrew's Episcopal Chapel on North Street in St Andrews in about 1865. Not long after this photograph was taken the episcopal congregation moved to a larger church on Queen's Terrace which is still in use today. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Friday 30th of July 2021 11:06:49 AM Friday 30th of July 2021 11:06:49 AM
304 1864 Removal of Restrictions on Episcopal Clergy For some decades there had been debates about the fact that clergy ordained by Scottish Episcopal bishops could not legally be appointed to positions in the Church of England. In 1864 this ban was overturned, ending official government discrimination against Episcopalians. This was a time when Episcopal congregations were growing and many new churches were built in Fife. At the end of the 1860s the Episcopalians in St Andrews constructed a large new church with room for 600 worshippers. Event Friday 30th of July 2021 11:08:24 AM Friday 30th of July 2021 11:08:24 AM
305 St John's Church in Inverkeithing has its origins in an eighteenth-century burgher congregation. In 1847 the congregation of St John's joined the United Presbyterians. The congregation later became Church of Scotland. The building now serves as the parish church for Inverkeithing. (Credit: Graeme Smith / Wikimedia) Image Sunday 01st of August 2021 05:23:09 PM Sunday 01st of August 2021 05:23:09 PM
306 1847 The United Secession Church and the Relief Church Join Together While the Church of Scotland was splitting again, some groups of seceders were joining together. In 1847 the United Secession Church and the Relief Church combined to form the United Presbyterian Church. The United Presbyterians had considerable support in Fife. Event Sunday 01st of August 2021 05:26:10 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 04:46:37 PM
307 Thomas Chalmers was a leading evangelical minister and academic. Following the Great Disruption he became the first moderator of the Free Church. This portrait was by the pioneering photographers David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson who set out to record the likenesses of the ministers at the Disruption Assembly. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Sunday 01st of August 2021 05:49:39 PM Sunday 01st of August 2021 05:49:39 PM
308 1843 The Great Disruption in the Church of Scotland For more than a century there had been divisions in the Church of Scotland over how appointments were made and the relationship between church and state. A series of legal cases in the 1830s worsened relations between the growing evangelical wing of the Church of Scotland and less radical ministers who accepted the right of the government to interfere in religious affairs. In 1843, following bitter argument, 121 ministers walked out of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The break-away ministers set up the new Free Church of Scotland. Free Church congregations sprang up across Fife, leading to the construction of a large number of new churches. Event Sunday 01st of August 2021 05:52:27 PM Sunday 01st of August 2021 06:02:31 PM
309 Thomas Chalmers was the first moderator of the Free Church. This portrait was by the pioneering photographers David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson who set out to record the likenesses of the ministers at the Disruption Assembly. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Sunday 01st of August 2021 06:01:28 PM Sunday 01st of August 2021 06:01:28 PM
310 The Duke of Wellington backed Catholic emancipation in 1829. As prime minister he helped steer the legislation through parliament and put pressure on George IV to agree to the reforms. (Credit: English Heritage / Wikimedia) Image Sunday 01st of August 2021 06:26:49 PM Sunday 01st of August 2021 06:26:49 PM
311 1829 Catholic Emancipation In 1829 the British Parliament passed legislation lifting most restrictions on Roman Catholics. Among other new freedoms, Roman Catholics were now allowed to vote and become members of Parliament. Over the course of the nineteenth century the Roman Catholic presence in Fife grew, largely as a result of immigration from Ireland. Event Sunday 01st of August 2021 06:28:05 PM Sunday 01st of August 2021 06:28:05 PM
312 Linktown Church in Kirkcaldy stands on the site of an eighteenth-century Burgher Church. For many years Kirkcaldy was a focal point for religious dissent. (Credit: Kilnburn / Wikimedia) Image Sunday 01st of August 2021 06:49:56 PM Sunday 01st of August 2021 06:49:56 PM
313 1820 Burghers and Anti-Burghers Join Together After more than seventy years of disagreement (largely focusing on the relationship between church and state) most members of the Burgher Church resolved their differences with the Anti-Burghers. They joined together as the new United Secession Church. This union resulted in some reorganisation of church buildings and congregations in Fife. Event Sunday 01st of August 2021 06:50:59 PM Sunday 01st of August 2021 06:56:45 PM
314 1820 Burghers and Anti-Burghers Join Together After more than seventy years of disagreement (largely focusing on the relationship between church and state) most members of the Burgher Church resolved their differences with the Anti-Burghers. They joined together as the new United Secession Church. This union resulted in some reorganisation of church buildings and congregations in Fife. Event Sunday 01st of August 2021 06:51:01 PM Sunday 01st of August 2021 06:51:01 PM
315 The Fife militia at Cupar in 1862. Until the 1790s Catholics were banned from serving in the county militias (which served on a part-time basis) or in the regular army. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Monday 02nd of August 2021 12:25:27 PM Monday 02nd of August 2021 12:25:27 PM
316 1793 Legal Restrictions on Roman Catholics are Reduced In the early 1790s the British Parliament decided to resolve the status of Roman Catholics in Scotland. More than a decade after the harshest restrictions had been lifted on Catholics in the rest of the United Kingdom, it was agreed that Roman Catholic worship would be allowed in Scotland, and that Catholics could legally own land and join the army. Event Monday 02nd of August 2021 12:27:40 PM Monday 02nd of August 2021 12:27:40 PM
317 St Peter's Episcopal Church in Kirkcaldy in about 1880. An Episcopal church was built in Kirkcaldy in 1811 following the lifting of restrictions in the 1790s. The building shown here was built in 1844 and demolished in the 1970s. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Monday 02nd of August 2021 01:43:23 PM Monday 02nd of August 2021 01:43:23 PM
318 1792 Episcopal Worship is Legalised Following the death of Charles Edward Stuart, the leaders of the Scottish Episcopal Church agreed to support George III. After some argument, the British Parliament removed most of the legal restrictions on Episcopalians in Scotland. Episcopal worship was now allowed, and Episcopalians could attend university. However, there remained some questions about the status of ministers in the Scottish Episcopal Church and whether clergy ordained north of the Border could work in England. Event Monday 02nd of August 2021 01:44:30 PM Monday 02nd of August 2021 01:44:30 PM
319 Bishop George Hay was the Roman Catholic leader responsible for Lowland Scotland in the late eighteenth century. In 1779 Hay's house in Edinburgh was burned during anti-Catholic protests. (Credit: G.A. Periam / Wikimedia) Image Monday 02nd of August 2021 07:36:33 PM Monday 02nd of August 2021 07:36:33 PM
320 1778 – 1780 Protests in Support of Continuing Restrictions on Roman Catholics Since the Reformation the Scottish government had banned Roman Catholic worship. In 1778 the British Parliament tried to reduce the restrictions on Roman Catholics. The proposed act caused major protests in Scotland. As a result of the popular unrest, Scotland was excluded from the new legislation, meaning that Scottish Roman Catholics continued to experience serious limits on their economic activities, choice of careers, and ability to practice their faith. Generations of discrimination meant that during the eighteenth century there were relatively few Roman Catholics in Fife. Event Monday 02nd of August 2021 07:38:01 PM Monday 02nd of August 2021 07:38:01 PM
321 The modern parish church in Colinsburgh was built by a Relief Church congregation in the nineteenth century. It was probably on this site that the Relief Church first met in the 1760s. (Credit: Richard Law / Wikimedia) Image Monday 02nd of August 2021 07:52:10 PM Monday 02nd of August 2021 07:52:10 PM
322 1761 The Relief Church Splits from the Church of Scotland During the 1750s and 1760s a dispute over the appointment of a new minister at Inverkeithing led to another split in the Church of Scotland. A group of ministers who objected to outside interference in parish appointments set up the new Relief Church. The first official meeting of the Relief Church took place at Colinsburgh. Perhaps unsurprisingly given its local origins the Relief Church soon gathered considerable support in Fife. Event Monday 02nd of August 2021 07:53:22 PM Monday 02nd of August 2021 07:53:22 PM
323 The village of Balmullo had an Anti-Burgher congregation in the 1740s. They may have met on the site of the building with a bell and a porch seen near the middle of this photograph from 1903. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 10:09:36 AM Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 10:09:36 AM
324 1747 The Secession Church Divides into the Burghers and Anti-Burghers The new Secession Church had a number of internal divisions which came to a head in the late 1740s. A particular area of disagreement concerned whether Seceders could take an oath to support the religion ‘presently professed in the country’. This oath was required of public officials, and in some Scottish burghs was demanded of all burgesses (essentially urban residents holding property over a certain value). Those congregations which accepted the oath became known as Burghers and those who rejected it were called Anti-Burghers. Event Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 10:10:38 AM Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 10:10:38 AM
325 During the eighteenth century many Episcopal services were adapted from the Scottish Prayer Book of 1637. Revised selections from the Prayer Book were sometimes published. These were called 'wee bookies'. (Credit: John Dowden) Image Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 11:50:05 AM Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 11:50:05 AM
326 1746 Increased Restrictions on Episcopalians Following the failed rebellion of 1745 and 1746 checks on Episcopalians increased. Episcopal ministers who failed to take an oath of loyalty were forbidden to lead services for more than four people. Episcopalians were also not allowed to be public officials or attend university. Event Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 11:51:57 AM Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 11:51:57 AM
327 Prince Charles Edward Stuart, also known as the Young Pretender. Portrait by Allan Ramsey. (Credit: National Galleries of Scotland / Wikimedia) Image Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 01:33:40 PM Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 01:33:40 PM
328 1745 – 1746 Jacobite Rising (The Forty-Five) In August 1745 Charles Edward Stuart (sometimes called the Young Pretender) landed on the West Coast of Scotland. His arrival triggered a far-reaching rebellion in support of the Stuart claim to the throne. In comparison to many other parts of Lowland Scotland Fife had a significant Jacobite presence. Episcopalians were particularly likely to join the Jacobites, although many Presbyterians also backed the rising. Event Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 01:39:41 PM Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 01:39:41 PM
329 Newburgh was one of a number of Fife communities where people seceded from the Church of Scotland in the 1730s and 1740s. View across Newburgh and the River Tay in about 1894. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 02:00:04 PM Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 02:00:04 PM
330 1733 The Secession Church Splits from the Church of Scotland Disagreements about the appointment of ministers and the role of powerful landowners as patrons led to a split in the Church of Scotland. A small group of ministers who wished for congregations to have greater control over church appointments broke away and founded the more radical Secession Church. There was considerable support for the Secession Church in Fife. Some of the break-away congregations worshipped in converted secular buildings. Others constructed their own churches, like the now demolished Bethelfield Church in Kirkcaldy. Event Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 02:01:29 PM Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 02:01:29 PM
331 Portrait of John Glas, the founder of the Glasites. (Credit: National Galleries of Scotland) Image Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 02:12:09 PM Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 02:12:09 PM
332 1730 The Glasite Church (or Kail Kirk) is Founded During the 1720s the popular preacher John Glas (a graduate of the University of St Andrews and minister at Tealing near Dundee) put forward a series of radical ideas including condemning the idea of a national church and regarding communion as a ‘love feast’. He was removed as minister of Tealing in 1730 and left the Church of Scotland to found his own sect. The first Glasite church was in Dundee, but a congregation was soon set up in Kirkcaldy. Because the Glasites celebrated communion as a meal with vegetable broth they became known as the ‘Kail Kirk’ (reflecting the traditional Scots term for kale or cabbage soup). Event Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 02:13:23 PM Tuesday 03rd of August 2021 02:13:23 PM
333 St Martin’s Church, Aberdour The placename Eglismartin (the ‘Church of (St) Martin’) in Easter Aberdour was first recorded in the fourteenth century. Names with the Eglis or Eccles element, short for Latin Ecclesiastes or Ecclesia (church), tend to indicate religious foundations dating back to the Pictish era (pre-900AD). By the later middle ages, when the place-name was recorded, there was no church on the site, and no other contemporary records survive to confirm its existence. However, tentative evidence that this had been the site of a church can be found in the Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1853-1855. In that survey, Mr Barr, the factor for the Inch Marton plantation, noted that a stone coffin and human bones had been found at the site some years previously. Immovable heritage Wednesday 04th of August 2021 12:01:05 PM Wednesday 04th of August 2021 12:01:05 PM
334 St Fillan's Church, Aberdour (Source: Richard Fawcett, 2012) Image Wednesday 04th of August 2021 12:03:59 PM Wednesday 04th of August 2021 12:03:59 PM
335 St Fillan’s Church, Aberdour The parish church of Aberdour first appears in the records in the twelfth century when it was the subject of a dispute between a local lord, William de Mortimer, and the Augustinian canons of Inchcolm. Substantial sections of the current building almost certainly date from the that period, and it was further expanded in the fifteenth century. After the Protestant Reformation, several sections of the church were converted into burial aisles for local noble families. The location of the church so close to their country seat at Aberdour Castle had been a point of contention for the Douglas family for some time, and in 1790 they successfully closed St Fillan’s and opened a new church in Wester Aberdour. Soon after its closure, the roof was removed, and it came close to being completely demolished. Fortunately, shortly after World War I the minister, Robert Johnsone, concocted the bold plan of restoring the church. The restoration was carried out by the architect William Williamson of Kirkcaldy in time for a grand reopening on 7 July 1926. In 1940, the congregation joined the former Free Church of St Colme’s and the parish church of Dalgety in a triple union. It remains an active place of worship. Immovable heritage Wednesday 04th of August 2021 12:07:36 PM Tuesday 14th of September 2021 11:06:26 AM
336 St Martha’s Hospital and St Fillan’s Well, Aberdour James Douglas, 1st earl of Morton (d.1493) founded St Martha’s hospital in Aberdour in 1474. It was located close to a holy well dedicated to St Fillan whose water was believed to cure nervous ailments, blindness, and deafness. The location of the well is recorded in the name of an eighteenth-century house ‘Wellside’, located at 45-47 Main Street, Aberdour. The tradition of those with eye problems visiting the well and using its water, seems to have survived well into the modern era. Writing in the 1850s, William Ross stated that this was a practice that was within living memory. The proximity of the site to Inchcolm means that it is possible that the hospital could also have been intended to serve any pilgrims heading to that island, where an image of St Columba was the subject of miracle stories. By 1486, frustrated that the project had not been realised despite a number of endowments of lands, the earl of Morton granted the lands and building to four sisters of the Order of St Francis, and a bull of 1487 extinguished the name and rights of the hospital. Immovable heritage Wednesday 04th of August 2021 12:10:04 PM Wednesday 04th of August 2021 12:10:04 PM
337 St Martha’s Nunnery, Aberdour James Douglas, earl of Morton (d.1493) founded St Martha’s hospital in Aberdour in 1474. However, by 1486 this project had not been realised, and the earl granted the lands and building to four Sisters of the Third Order of St Francis, Isobel and Jean Wright, Frances Henryson, and Jean Drossewith. The nuns of this order were generally associated with hospitals, and the convent at Aberdour was one of only two such communities in Scotland. The dedicatee, St Martha of Bethany was a biblical figure included in the gospels of Luke and John. She was the sister of Lazarus and witnessed his resurrection. In 1560 the house was disbanded, when the four remaining sisters Agnes Wrycht, Elizabeth Trumball, Margaret Crummy, and Cristina Cornawell leased their lands and buildings to James Douglas, 4th earl of Morton (d.1581). Immovable heritage Wednesday 04th of August 2021 01:11:36 PM Wednesday 04th of August 2021 01:11:36 PM
338 Aberdour Former Parish Church Interior (before 1926). Image Wednesday 04th of August 2021 01:15:17 PM Wednesday 04th of August 2021 01:15:17 PM
339 Aberdour Former Parish Church The location of the church so close to their country seat at Aberdour Castle had been a point of contention for the Douglas family for some time, and in 1790 they successfully closed St Fillan’s and opened a new church in Wester Aberdour. It was located close to the main road, but was considered by some observers to be too distant from some of the northern parts of the parish. The church received few additions in the relatively short time that it was in use, aside from a striking war memorial built in 1919. Following the restoration of St Fillan’s in 1926, it was converted into a church hall and continues to be well used by community groups and as a venue for local events and activities. Immovable heritage Wednesday 04th of August 2021 01:17:04 PM Wednesday 04th of August 2021 01:17:04 PM
340 Aberdour Free Church Shortly after the Great Disruption in 1843, a Free Church congregation was founded in Aberdour. They opened a church, called St Colme’s, in 1845, close to the location of the old parish church. By 1848 it had a congregation of 318. In 1900 it became a United Free Church, by which point the congregation had fallen to 117, and in 1929 it re-joined the church of Scotland. In 1940 the church the congregation joined St Fillan’s and the parish church of Dalgety in a triple union, and in the 1950s the church was demolished. Immovable heritage Wednesday 04th of August 2021 01:19:35 PM Wednesday 04th of August 2021 01:25:52 PM
341 St Columba’s Episcopal Church, Aberdour Image Wednesday 04th of August 2021 01:21:27 PM Wednesday 04th of August 2021 01:21:27 PM
342 St. Columba's Episcopal Church, Aberdour There is some debate as to when the Episcopal Church congregation was founded in Aberdour. In 1845 Hugh Ralph noted that there was one Episcopal family in the parish, but did not mention a church. It was certainly there by 1854 when it appears on an Ordnance Survey Map, and Barbieri made a note of it in 1857. It was founded by the Moray family for their estate workers, and the congregation seems to have been boosted in the twentieth century by service families who were stationed in western Fife during, and between, the two world wars. It is currently part of the All-Soul’s group, which is a union of the congregations of churches in Inverkeithing, Burntisland and Aberdour, totalling some 150 in all. Immovable heritage Wednesday 04th of August 2021 01:23:29 PM Wednesday 04th of August 2021 01:23:29 PM
343 St. Teresa's Roman Catholic Church, Aberdour In 1845 Hugh Ralph noted that one family in the parish belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, but it was not until 1971 that a RC congregation returned to Aberdour. The church was built in the Hillside area of Aberdour, close to the local school. It is no longer in active use, although when the congregation left is unclear. Immovable heritage Wednesday 04th of August 2021 01:28:21 PM Wednesday 04th of August 2021 01:28:21 PM
344 Crail Kilwinning Geolocated Monday 23rd of August 2021 04:39:56 PM Monday 23rd of August 2021 04:39:56 PM
345 The old piers at St Andrews Harbour. In the 1520s this harbour was the focus for smuggling illicit religious publications into Scotland. (Credit: Bess Rhodes) Image Tuesday 31st of August 2021 10:40:49 AM Tuesday 31st of August 2021 10:40:49 AM
346 c. 1525 – 1530 Lutheran Ideas Begin to Spread in Fife In 1517 the German academic Martin Luther published a series of criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther’s protest rapidly developed into an international religious crisis, which would ultimately lead to the creation of the movement we now term ‘Protestantism’. By the middle of the 1520s the writings of Luther and his supporters were being smuggled into Fife. Contemporary spies record that St Andrews was one of the main ports where this ‘heretical’ literature was brought into Scotland. Event Tuesday 31st of August 2021 10:42:25 AM Tuesday 31st of August 2021 10:42:25 AM
347 St Andrews Castle seen from the air. Before the Reformation the castle was the residence of the Archbishops of St Andrews. (Credit: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Tuesday 31st of August 2021 10:59:55 AM Tuesday 31st of August 2021 10:59:55 AM
348 1546 Cardinal David Beaton is Murdered In the spring of 1546 the Roman Catholic archbishop of St Andrews, Cardinal David Beaton, was assassinated by a group of Fife lairds who opposed his religious and political policies. The murderers gained access to Beaton’s residence at St Andrews Castle because the gates were open for building work. The lairds killed Beaton, strung his body from the walls, then proceeded to occupy the castle for over a year. They were eventually removed by a fleet sent from France which bombarded the castle into submission. Event Tuesday 31st of August 2021 11:00:31 AM Tuesday 31st of August 2021 11:00:31 AM
349 The title page of Archbishop Hamilton's 'Catechism'. This was the first book ever printed in Fife. (Credit: Internet Archive) Image Saturday 04th of September 2021 04:04:47 PM Saturday 04th of September 2021 04:04:47 PM
350 c. 1550 – 1559 Archbishop Hamilton Supports Roman Catholic Reform During the 1550s a number of Roman Catholics worked to bring improvements to the Church in Scotland. Fife was at the heart of this movement, which was backed by John Hamilton, the new archbishop of St Andrews. This period saw efforts to improve the education of churchmen and to encourage better communication with lay men and women. Regular preaching was encouraged. Hamilton also supported the printing of a short summary of core Roman Catholic beliefs. This summary (or catechism) was in Scots and was meant to be read aloud in church on Sundays and holy days. Event Saturday 04th of September 2021 04:06:32 PM Saturday 04th of September 2021 04:06:32 PM
351 John Knox - one of best known Protestant preachers in Reformation Scotland. (Credit: Wikimedia) Image Saturday 04th of September 2021 04:37:30 PM Saturday 04th of September 2021 04:37:30 PM
352 1559-1560 Reformation Crisis In the spring and summer of 1559 Protestant activists set out to ‘reform’ Roman Catholic churches. Influenced by strict Calvinist ideas on the wickedness of ‘idols’, they smashed statues, removed altars, and burned religious books. Once churches had been ‘purged’ in this fashion the Protestants established new forms of services and church government. Cupar was one of the first places in Fife to be reformed, and Crail followed soon after. The Protestants (who called themselves ‘the Congregation’) then turned their attention to St Andrews – Scotland’s historic religious capital. In June 1559 the Protestant preacher John Knox delivered a sermon in St Andrews encouraging his listeners to ‘remove the monuments of idolatry’. Knox and his supporters proceeded to sack St Andrews Cathedral and other religious sites in the burgh. From this point onwards St Andrews was controlled by Protestants, and became a key Reformist stronghold. By the summer of 1560 Protestant forces had occupied Edinburgh and the Scottish Parliament officially rejected Roman Catholicism. Event Saturday 04th of September 2021 04:38:23 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 10:37:11 AM
353 The Collegiate Church at Crail was reformed in June 1559, shortly before the Protestants descended on the religious capital of St Andrews. (Credit: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 10:34:45 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 10:34:45 AM
354 Holy Trinity Church in St Andrews. This image shows the church in the eighteenth century. The medieval stained glass has been removed and several windows partly blocked up to fit with Reformed ideas on church design. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 10:40:54 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 10:40:54 AM
355 c.1560 – 1570 Establishing a Reformed Church The Reformation Parliament of 1560 saw Scotland officially declared a Protestant country. However, it took time to establish the structures of a Reformed Church across the nation. Fife was at the forefront of this movement. Local church courts, known as kirk sessions, were key to imposing religious change on the wider population. The kirk sessions ensured that people attended church on Sundays, prosecuted moral lapses (such as drunkenness, adultery, and slander), and took action against religious dissenters. Holy Trinity Church in St Andrews has the earliest kirk session records in Scotland – beginning in the late summer of 1559. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 10:42:52 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 10:42:52 AM
356 An eighteenth-century painting of St Mary's College in the University of St Andrews. John Douglas was for many years a member of St Mary's. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 10:52:48 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 10:52:48 AM
357 1572 Protestant Bishoprics Established For many years there were bitter debates about how the new Protestant Church of Scotland should be governed. In the 1560s each region had a superintendent who oversaw religious affairs and reported back to the General Assembly (an annual meeting of ministers serving in the Church of Scotland). The first superintendent of Fife was John Winram – who had previously been involved in Archbishop Hamilton’s plans for Roman Catholic reform. In the early 1570s pressure from central government led to the reintroduction of bishops to the Church of Scotland. John Douglas, an academic from St Mary’s College, was chosen as the first Protestant archbishop of St Andrews. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 10:54:18 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 10:54:18 AM
358 The family of a wine-merchant in Antwerp enjoy a celebratory meal in the 1560s. In Scotland feasting and taking time off from work at Christmas came to be a punishable offence in the years after the Reformation. (Credit: Rijksmuseum / Wikimedia) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 10:59:08 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 10:59:08 AM
359 1574 Punishments Imposed for Celebrating Christmas By the 1570s the Church of Scotland was adopting an increasingly hard line on religious festivals. In particular there was a campaign against celebrating Christmas (or Yule as it was often known in Scotland). At the beginning of 1574 the St Andrews Kirk Session punished a number of people that ‘observed superstitiously the said Yule day’. The kirk session ordered that anyone who ‘abstained from work’ at Christmas or any other holy day ‘except Sunday’ should be prosecuted. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:00:53 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:00:53 AM
360 During the 1590s the Scottish Parliament usually met in St Giles' Kirk in Edinburgh. This photograph shows St Giles' in the 1870s. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:10:23 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:10:23 AM
361 1592 Presbyterian Church Government Established The later decades of the sixteenth century saw ongoing tensions about how radical the Church of Scotland should be. Many of these arguments became focused around the question of church government. In 1592 the Scottish Parliament abolished the role of bishops – a brief victory for those Scots who wanted a more strictly Reformed version of Christianity. Instead the Scottish Church would adopt a more democratic form of church government with regional presbyteries reporting back to the General Assembly. Churches which adopt this type of administrative structure are often known as Presbyterian. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:10:54 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:10:54 AM
362 Burntisland Parish Church was one of the first churches built in Fife after the Reformation. It was designed for listeners to be able to focus on the preaching and formed a major departure from the traditional layout of churches. (Credit: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:22:33 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:22:33 AM
363 1601 General Assembly at Burntisland Proposes a New Translation of the Bible Reading the Bible formed a vital part of Protestant religious activity. In particular Protestants believed that people should have access to the Bible in their native language. Yet there were significant problems with many of the early translations of the Bible into English. In 1601 a meeting of the General Assembly at the Fife parish of Burntisland suggested the commissioning of an improved translation of the Scriptures. This proposal received the backing of the Scottish King James VI who implemented the scheme after he became ruler of England in 1603. The resulting translation is often called the King James Bible, and was for many centuries the main version of the Scriptures used in English-speaking countries. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:23:27 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:23:27 AM
364 An anonymous engraving of King James VI and I. (Credit: National Galleries of Scotland) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:30:55 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:30:55 AM
365 1606 Restrictions on Bishops Removed As he grew older King James VI became opposed to the relatively democratic government of the Church of Scotland. He had bitter disputes with what he termed the ‘fiery ministers’ of the General Assembly. The king believed that Presbyterianism led to disorder and the undermining of royal authority. As a result he campaigned for the reintroduction of bishops to Scotland – a policy which was backed by the Scottish Parliament in July 1606. James VI’s religious policies were resisted by some residents of Fife. In the autumn of 1606 the St Andrews academic Andrew Melville was sent to the Tower of London for criticising James VI’s changes to the Church. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:31:52 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:31:52 AM
366 A woodcut showing protestors objecting to Archbishop Spottiswoode's efforts to introduce the Scottish Prayer Book. (Credit: Wikimedia) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:41:58 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:41:58 AM
367 1638 National Covenant The 1630s saw growing tensions about religion in Scotland. At this time King Charles I tried to bring the Church of Scotland more in line with English practices. Charles firmly supported the role of bishops and wanted more elaborate services. In 1637 a new prayer book was published for Scotland, partly based on the English Book of Common Prayer. This move was deeply disliked by many Scots. When Archbishop John Spottiswoode of St Andrews tried to impose the new prayer book it triggered riots. One of the key opponents of the changes in worship was Alexander Henderson (who came from Fife and had previously served as minister at Leuchars). Henderson helped draw up the National Covenant – a document in which Scots expressed their opposition to alterations to the Church of Scotland. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:44:04 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:44:04 AM
368 An early seventeenth-century house in Inverkeithing. In July 1651 there was a battle fought just to the south of Inverkeithing between English Parliamentarians and Scottish supporters of Charles II. (Credit: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:59:02 AM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 11:59:02 AM
369 1639 – 1660 Wars of the Three Kingdoms and Cromwell’s Occupation of Scotland In 1639 Scotland slipped into religious war. Supporters of the National Covenant (sometimes known as Covenanters) took up arms in defence of their beliefs. The response of Charles I to this crisis led to civil war across his three kingdoms – namely England, Ireland, and Scotland. For most of the 1640s the Scottish Parliament opposed the king. However, following Charles I’s execution in 1649, the Scottish government gave support to the Royalist side and backed the crowning of Charles II at Scone. This prompted the English Parliament and the military dictator Oliver Cromwell to invade Scotland. During the 1650s Fife was occupied by English forces. The invaders were resented and there were complaints that English soldiers did not behave properly in Fife churches. Despite these issues Presbyterian preaching and services continued in most places. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:00:05 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:00:05 PM
370 An engraving of King Charles II by William Fairthorne. (Credit: National Galleries of Scotland) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:12:23 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:12:23 PM
371 1661 Charles II Overturns Religious Changes In 1660 the English invited Charles II to return as king. Shortly afterwards Charles set about overturning the religious changes of the previous decades. In 1661 the Scottish Parliament passed the Rescissory Act which got rid of all the laws passed since 1633. This paved the way for Charles II to reintroduce bishops and support more elaborate forms of worship. The minister of Crail, James Sharp, was made archbishop of St Andrews. Meanwhile religious festivals such as Christmas, Easter, and St Andrew’s Day were once again celebrated. These changes were welcomed in some quarters but were opposed by many Fife residents. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:13:16 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 01:55:18 PM
372 An eighteenth-century drawing of the monument to Archbishop Sharp in Holy Trinity Church, St Andrews. A relief near the base of the monument shows the archbishop's murder. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:19:51 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:22:39 PM
373 1679 Archbishop Sharp is Murdered Archbishop James Sharp was a divisive religious leader. Many Presbyterians felt that he had sold out the Church of Scotland by agreeing to become archbishop of St Andrews. Sharp rigorously enforced the religious changes imposed by Charles II and removed a number of his opponents from their posts in the Church. In 1679 Archbishop Sharp was murdered by a group of radical Presbyterians. He was set upon while travelling across Magus Muir in Fife. Sharp’s assassins dragged him from his carriage and killed him in front of his daughter. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:21:06 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:21:06 PM
374 An anonymous engraving of Queen Mary II. With her husband William of Orange, Mary authorised the restoration of Presbyterianism in Scotland. (Credit: National Galleries of Scotland) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:28:55 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:28:55 PM
375 1689 – 1690 Presbyterianism is Restored In 1689 King James VII was replaced as ruler of Scotland by his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange. Soon afterwards the Scottish Parliament (which had backed William and Mary) passed an act abolishing the authority of bishops. In 1690 Scotland officially became a Presbyterian state. The members of the Church of Scotland who refused to accept these changes formed the beginnings of the Scottish Episcopal Church. There were committed Presbyterians and Episcopalians in Fife, creating long-term religious divisions. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:29:40 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:29:40 PM
376 A late seventeenth-century French engraving of the Scottish Parliament. The different estates which made up the parliament are shown in procession at the bottom of the page and sitting at the top. (Credit: National Galleries of Scotland) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:55:21 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:55:21 PM
377 1695 Episcopal Clergy Banned from Performing Marriages or Baptisms Many of Fife’s Episcopal clergymen were removed from their parishes by the restoration of Presbyterianism. In 1695 the Scottish Parliament passed a law forbidding displaced Episcopal clergy from performing marriages or baptisms under pain of ‘perpetual imprisonment or banishment’. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:55:54 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 12:55:54 PM
378 Engraving of Queen Anne by J.C. Marchand. Anne was the first ruler of the newly created United Kingdom. (Credit: National Galleries of Scotland) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 01:58:41 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 01:58:41 PM
379 1707 The Act of Union After much debate, the parliaments of Scotland and England passed legislation to create a new Kingdom of Great Britain. The Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh closed. Until the twentieth century legislation on Scottish religious affairs became the responsibility of the British Parliament at Westminster. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 01:59:27 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 01:59:27 PM
380 Kingsbarns Parish Church in the early twentieth century. During the 1730s Kingsbarns became the scene of a dispute between the congregation and the patron of the parish over the appointment of a new minister. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 02:14:09 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 02:14:09 PM
381 1711 Changes to Appointments in the Church of Scotland Lobbying from Scottish aristocrats led to the passing of the Church Patronage Act. This stated that the old patrons of Scottish parishes (typically large landowners) could influence the appointment of Church of Scotland ministers. The move was deeply unpopular with many Presbyterians, and there was significant opposition to the changes in Fife. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 02:14:39 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 02:14:39 PM
382 The Victorian artist John Philip imagines an eighteenth-century Scottish baptism in a private house. (Credit: Aberdeen Art Gallery) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 02:40:56 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 02:40:56 PM
383 1711 The Scottish Episcopalians Act is Passed The British government was initially more tolerant of Episcopalians than the Scottish Parliament had been. In 1711 the laws against Episcopal marriages and baptisms were removed and new legislation ordered that Episcopalians were not to be disturbed ‘in the exercise of their religious worship’. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 02:41:29 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 02:41:29 PM
384 An English cartoon by William Heath making fun of Christmas festivities in the countryside in about 1800. (Credit: The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 03:01:45 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 03:01:45 PM
385 1712 Celebrating Christmas is Legalised When Presbyterianism was re-established in 1690 the Scottish Parliament also passed legislation banning Christmas. In 1712 this ban was lifted and the British Parliament legalised keeping Christmas in Scotland. However, most Presbyterians remained opposed to any festivities or special services on 25 December. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 03:02:15 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 03:02:15 PM
386 An engraving of James Francis Edward Stuart (also known as the Old Pretender). In normal circumstances James would have been king of Scotland and England but legislation was passed banning Roman Catholics from the throne. (Credit: National Galleries of Scotland) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 04:31:59 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 04:31:59 PM
387 1715 – 1716 Jacobite Rising (The Fifteen) The accession of George I to the British throne was soon followed by a rebellion backing James Francis Edward Stuart’s claim to be king instead. James (also known as the Old Pretender) was a Roman Catholic, but he received support from many Scottish Episcopalians who were unhappy about the restoration of Presbyterianism. During the autumn of 1715 Jacobite rebels occupied Dundee and were active in Fife. However, their success was short-lived. In December 1715 government soldiers entered Dunfermline and Burntisland, paving the way to regaining control over the rest of Fife. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 04:32:33 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 04:32:33 PM
388 Photograph of Pittenweem Priory in the 1940s. One of the priory outbuildings was home to an eighteenth-century Episcopal congregation. (Credit: University of St Andrews) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 04:39:43 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 04:39:43 PM
389 1719 Limits on Size of Episcopal Congregations After the Jacobite rising of 1715 the British government became increasingly suspicious of Scottish Episcopalians. Ministers in the Scottish Episcopal Church were required to take an oath renouncing the Stuart claim to the throne and promising to pray for George I. Most Episcopal ministers refused to do this. Episcopalians who did not accept George I were known as ‘non-jurors’ and were banned from conducting services with more than nine attendees. There were several ‘non-juring’ ministers and congregations in Fife. Because of the restrictions non-jurors often worshipped in private houses. In Pittenweem the non-juring Episcopalians met for a time in a barn on the site of the medieval Pittenweem Priory. Event Wednesday 08th of September 2021 04:40:18 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 04:40:18 PM
390 St John's Church in Inverkeithing has its origins in an eighteenth-century burgher congregation. In 1847 the congregation of St John's joined the United Presbyterians. The congregation later became Church of Scotland. (Credit: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 04:46:18 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 04:46:18 PM
391 The former burgher kirk on Imrie’s Close. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 07:35:17 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 07:35:17 PM
392 The former Christian Brethren Hall on Greenside Place. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 07:40:43 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 07:40:43 PM
393 Hope Street and Howard Place in St Andrews near to the Friends Meeting House. (Source: Jim Bain / Wikimedia) Image Wednesday 08th of September 2021 07:56:00 PM Wednesday 08th of September 2021 07:56:00 PM
394 St Fillan's Church, Aberdour (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021) Image Tuesday 14th of September 2021 11:06:14 AM Tuesday 14th of September 2021 11:06:14 AM
395 Anstruther Easter Parish Church (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021) Image Tuesday 14th of September 2021 11:10:25 AM Tuesday 14th of September 2021 11:10:25 AM
396 Anstruther Wester (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021) Image Tuesday 14th of September 2021 11:18:25 AM Tuesday 14th of September 2021 11:18:25 AM
397 St Serf’s Church, Culross Although Culross only enters the written record in the 1200s, it is clear from archaeological evidence that a community had existed there long before that date. The burgh’s early religious history is associated with St Serf, an important local saint with dedications across Western Fife, Kinross and Clackmannanshire. Culross was the centre of his cult, with relics of the saint housed at the Cistercian Abbey (1217), and presumably the religious building that preceded the abbey. There are a number of conflicting legends surrounding the date of Serf’s life, ranging from the fifth to the eight centuries. Regardless of the accuracy of these various accounts, it is clear that a religious community of some form was located at Culross from at least the eighth century. Immovable heritage Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:01:28 PM Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:01:28 PM
398 Culross Abbey Tower (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021) Image Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:02:43 PM Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:02:43 PM
399 Abbey of Culross The Abbey of Culross was founded in 1217 by Maol Choluim I, Earl of Fife (1204–1228), who was himself buried in the church in 1228x1229. Dedicated to St Mary and St Serf, it housed monks of the Cistercian order, a reformed order founded in the late twelfth century at the Burgundian Abbey of Citeaux, from which they take their name. It also housed the relics of St Serf which were visited by pilgrims, including James IV in the early sixteenth century. Most of the current building dates from the 1200s, apart from the large central tower, constructed in the fifteenth century. Shortly after the Reformation, the presbytery, transepts choir and tower of the Abbey were converted into the parish church of Culross, and are still in use today a Culross Abbey Parish Church. Immovable heritage Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:04:30 PM Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:04:30 PM
400 Culross Church Exterior (Source Fawcett, 2011) Image Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:06:32 PM Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:06:32 PM
401 Culross Parish (West) Church The old parish church of Culross lies around 800 metres to the north west of the burgh. It was first recorded in 1217 when it was gifted to the monks at the newly founded abbey in Culross. Most of the structure was built in the twelfth or thirteenth century, with some additions in the later middle ages, including an aisle projecting from mid-point of the south wall. The parishioners of Culross relocated to eastern parts of the former Abbey shortly after the Reformation, although when exactly they ceased to use the West Kirk is unclear. In 1633, when this arrangement was formalised, it was noted that the church had not been used in living memory. It remained in use as a graveyard until the nineteenth century. Immovable heritage Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:08:59 PM Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:08:59 PM
402 St Mungo’s Chapel (Source: Ewan Malecki (October 2007). Image Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:10:48 PM Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:10:48 PM
403 Chapel of St Kentigern, Culross The chapel of St Kentigern in Culross was founded in 1503 by Robert Blacadder, Archbishop of Glasgow (1484-1508). Kentigern, or Mungo as he is commonly known, was believed to have been born in Culross. According to the Vita St Kentigerni (composed in the twelfth century), the saint’s pregnant mother (Tenew) was cast adrift in a coracle from Aberlady Bay, eventually washing up on the shore near Culross where she gave birth to Kentigern. He was raised under the mentorship of St Serf, before undertaking a mission in the west where he converted the kingdom of Strathclyde. The chapel was located to the south-east of the abbey, close to the shore. Excavations were carried out there in the 1860s, revealingfour skeletons, and a further dig was carried out again in the 1920s by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. It is now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland. Immovable heritage Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:15:21 PM Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:15:21 PM
404 Bruce of Culross and Carnock Monument (Source: Bess Rhodes) Image Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:17:49 PM Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:17:49 PM
405 Culross Abbey Parish Church Shortly after the Reformation, the presbytery, transepts choir and tower of the Abbey were converted into the parish church of Culross. This situation was formerly recognised by an Act of Parliament in 1633. In 1642 the church received a significant addition when a funerary monument was constructed for George Bruce of Culross and Carnock (died 1625) in the former North Chapel. The church received repairs in the 1820s and 1860s, and a significant restoration by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson in 1903-1906 which included the rebuilding of the south transept and presbytery. In 1943 the congregations of Culross Abbey Parish Church and of St Kentigern’s united and chose to use the Abbey church. More recently, the congregation has united with Torryburn and High Valleyfield to form a single parish, with services alternating between the different sites. Immovable heritage Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:19:14 PM Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:19:14 PM
406 Culross Free Church (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007). Image Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:20:11 PM Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:20:11 PM
407 Culross Free Church The Free Church in Culross was formed in 1846, and in the following year, with the support Mr Cunninghame of Balgownie, a church was built on the Low Causeway in the west of the town. A renewal of mining operations in the area around Culross in the later nineteenth-century saw the congregation grow, and a manse (1873) and church hall (1883) were built in the town. In 1900 it had a congregation of 113, and, following the union between the Free and United Presbyterian Church in 1901 it became known as Culross United Free Church. In 1929 the congregation re-joined the Church of Scotland and changed its name to St Kentigern’s Church. The congregation united with that Culross Abbey Parish Church in 1943 and the former church in the Low Causeway fell out of use. In 1996 it was converted into private flats and is now known as Cunninghame House. Immovable heritage Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:22:50 PM Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:22:50 PM
408 St Serf’s Roman Catholic Church (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007) Image Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:24:04 PM Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:24:04 PM
409 St. Serf's Roman Catholic Church, Culross St Serf’s Roman Catholic Church was built in 1922 after the opening of new pits at Valleyfield and Blairhall in the early twentieth century saw a large increase in the population of Culross and the surrounding villages. It was located in High Valleyfield and built Reginald Fairlie. It is a simple rectangular building with transepts and a small bellcote which was added at a later date. By 2017 the church had fallen out of use and the parish is no longer included within the list of churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane. Immovable heritage Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:25:58 PM Thursday 16th of September 2021 02:25:58 PM
410 Inverkeithing Baptist Church (Source: Bess Rhodes) Image Wednesday 22nd of September 2021 12:01:27 PM Wednesday 22nd of September 2021 12:01:27 PM
411 Inverkeithing Episcopal Church (Source: Bess Rhodes) Image Wednesday 22nd of September 2021 12:19:21 PM Wednesday 22nd of September 2021 12:19:21 PM
412 St John's, Inverkeithing (Source: Bess Rhodes) Image Wednesday 22nd of September 2021 12:29:30 PM Wednesday 22nd of September 2021 12:29:30 PM
413 The Meeting House for the Society of Friends on Howard Place. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Tuesday 05th of October 2021 05:33:34 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 05:33:34 PM
414 The former Salvation Army Hall on North Street, now a restaurant known as ‘The Rav’. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Tuesday 05th of October 2021 06:56:01 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 06:56:01 PM
415 St Andrew’s Chapel in about 1865. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, ALB-10-62.) Image Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:01:39 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:01:39 PM
416 The newly built St Leonard’s Church in about 1904. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, JV44554.) Image Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:10:55 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:10:55 PM
417 St Leonard’s Church The parish of St Leonard’s has its origins in the Middle Ages. However, the congregation has only worshipped in the current St Leonard’s Church on Hepburn Gardens since the early years of the twentieth century. From 1761 until 1904 the parishioners of St Leonard’s held services in St Salvator’s College Chapel. Their departure from St Salvator’s was surrounded by controversy. In 1898 the University of St Andrews declared a wish for St Salvator’s to be a university chapel and requested the congregation of St Leonard’s to move. Objecting to the change the St Leonard’s congregation took legal proceedings against the university. Eventually it was agreed that land on the outskirts of St Andrews, in what was then known as Rathelpie, should be acquired for St Leonard’s. A new church was built there according to a design by Peter Macgregor Chalmers, and using local sandstone from Nydie. The architecture of St Leonard’s was inspired by the rounded arches and solid appearance of Romanesque buildings. The church has a fine collection of stained glass, much of which was installed in the 1920s and 1930s. Shortly before the Second World War a church hall was built beside the church. Further alterations were made to the church in the 1960s and at the start of the twenty-first century. Today St Leonard’s remains home to an active Church of Scotland congregation. Immovable heritage Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:12:33 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:13:30 PM
418 The line of smaller buildings on the lower right of this image may include the Chapel of St Mary Magdalene. Detail from the Geddy Map of c. 1580. (Source: John Geddy, ‘S. Andrew sive Andreapolis Scotiae Universitas Metropolitana’. NLS, MS.20996. Available at: http://maps.nls.uk/towns/rec/215) Image Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:19:03 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:19:03 PM
419 St Mary Magdalene’s Chapel Little is known about the medieval chapel of St Mary Magdalene. Sixteenth-century property records indicate that it was located within the cathedral precinct, probably a little way to the south of what we now call St Rule’s Church (then more commonly known as the ‘old church’). According to a document from 1571 ‘the garden of the chapel of St Magdalene with the chapel itself’ stood just to the west of a house and garden held by David Peblis (a former canon at the Cathedral Priory). Both properties seem to have been bounded on the north by ‘the cemetery of the old church’. Several small buildings with gardens can be seen in this area on the late sixteenth-century Geddy Map of St Andrews. It is likely that the chapel stopped serving a religious purpose at the Reformation (so a few years before the description from 1571). The garden of St Magdalene continues to appear in property records during the 1580s. However the name seems to have disappeared by the late seventeenth century. Near the start of the twentieth century the antiquarian David Hay Fleming noted the discovery of stones from a Norman arch and part of the base of an ‘Early English clustered column’ a little south of St Rule’s which he felt ‘may be regarded as indicating the site of St Magdalene’s Chapel’. However efforts in the 1960s to find further remains in this area were not successful. Immovable heritage Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:21:36 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:21:36 PM
420 The former St Mary’s Church building, now the Victory Memorial Hall. This image shows the hall during the Covid-19 pandemic when it was in use as testing site. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University St Andrews) Image Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:31:15 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:31:15 PM
421 St Mary’s Church, St Mary’s Place During the early nineteenth century the parish church of Holy Trinity on South Street became too small for the growing population of St Andrews. To address this problem, St Mary’s Church was built on the south side of what became known as St Mary’s Place. The church opened for Church of Scotland worship around 1840, and could seat up to 700 people. The new building was designed by the Edinburgh architect William Burn (who would go on to become a leading proponent of the Scottish baronial style). Following the extension of Holy Trinity in the early twentieth-century St Mary’s was no longer needed as a church and was converted into the Victory Memorial Hall (the name commemorates the ending of the First World War). The front of the building has seen major alterations. Much of the stone is now harled and the windows have been altered. However, the buttresses down each side of the building and the main entrance still reflect its original Victorian design. Immovable heritage Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:33:33 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:33:33 PM
422 The roofless former chapel of St Mary’s College can be seen in this detail from the Geddy Map of c. 1580. (Source: John Geddy, ‘S. Andrew sive Andreapolis Scotiae Universitas Metropolitana’. NLS, MS.20996. Available at: http://maps.nls.uk/towns/rec/215) Image Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:41:57 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:41:57 PM
423 St Mary’s College The site of St Mary’s College on South Street has lengthy associations with religion and learning. In 1419 Robert de Montrose (one of the priests who served at St Mary’s on the Rock) donated a plot of land for ‘a College of Theologians and Artists in honour of Almighty God and especially of the Blessed John the Evangelist’. The first master of the College of St John was Laurence of Lindores – who also served as Inquisitor of Heretical Pravity for Scotland (in other words he was the chief official investigating religious dissent). From an early date St John’s College had its own chapel. Indeed the chapel may have predated the foundation of the College. By the early sixteenth century St John’s had fallen on hard times, and in the 1530s Archbishop James Beaton decided to refound it as a college dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The new St Mary’s College was intended to educate Catholic churchmen to fight heresy. During the 1540s Cardinal David Beaton invested in new buildings for St Mary’s. Masons from the royal palace at Falkland came to work on the college, and a marble altar for the chapel was imported from France. Further work was commissioned by Archbishop John Hamilton in the 1550s. There is some disagreement about whether building work on the chapel had been completed at the time of the Reformation. However, records in the university archives indicate that as early as 1546 St Mary’s College chapel was being used for official ceremonies. The Protestant policy of encouraging members of the university to worship with the residents of the town, probably brought an end to the religious function of the college chapel, and the Geddy map of about 1580 appears to show the building in ruins. Decorative fragments from the pre-Reformation chapel can be seen on the south side of Parliament Hall (which stands on the site of the former chapel). During the late sixteenth-century St Mary’s was reorganised as a Protestant college, and trained ministers for the Reformed Kirk. Today St Mary’s College is still the centre of Divinity teaching and research at the University of St Andrews. Immovable heritage Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:43:34 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:43:34 PM
424 The remains of St Mary’s on the Rock. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:49:37 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:49:37 PM
425 St Mary’s On The Rock The ruins of the medieval church of St Mary’s on the Rock (also called St Mary’s Kirkhill) stand on the cliffs looking out over the North Sea. This headland has been a place of importance since prehistoric times, and several Iron Age graves have been found in the area. More than three hundred early Christian burials have also been excavated near St Mary’s – suggesting that this was one of the oldest religious sites in St Andrews. By the twelfth century there was a Culdee church here. This then became a community of priests known as the College of St Mary on the Rock. It is thought that St Mary’s may be the first collegiate church in Scotland. During the late Middle Ages St Mary’s was a royal chapel, though it perhaps lost this status near the beginning of the sixteenth century (following the creation of the Chapel Royal at Stirling). At the Reformation St Mary’s was served by a provost and twelve prebends, a number which echoes Christ and his twelve disciples. When the St Andrews’ authorities adopted Protestantism some of the priests at St Mary’s joined the Reformed Church, but others resisted religious change. The clerics who resisted had property confiscated and faced prosecution. One of the St Mary’s priests who refused to join the Protestant congregation was Thomas Methven. When summoned before the Superintendent of Fife in August 1561 Methven apparently declared that he was ‘neither a Papist nor a Calvinist... but Jesus Christ’s man’. Methven’s comment did not endear him to St Andrews’ religious leaders and he was banished from the burgh. The buildings of St Mary’s on the Rock also suffered an unfortunate fate. The church was attacked in June 1559, and in 1561the college was declared ‘a profane house’. By the late sixteenth century the church had been demolished (although some of the domestic college buildings may still have been standing). The foundations of St Mary’s on the Rock were rediscovered in the nineteenth century and are now cared for by Historic Environment Scotland. Immovable heritage Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:51:18 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:51:18 PM
426 The former St Nicholas Hospital in the late seventeenth century. (Source: John Slezer, ‘The Prospect of the Town of St Andrews’, Theatrum Scotiae (1693). Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/91169135) Image Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:56:44 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:01:34 PM
427 St Nicholas Hospital The hospital of St Nicholas was founded as a refuge for lepers in the twelfth century. Because of fears of infection it stood a little to the south of the main built-up area of St Andrews, near the East Sands. As the prevalence of leprosy declined in the late Middle Ages the hospital became a more general shelter for the poor and sick. During the early sixteenth century the hospital was owned by St Andrews’ Dominican friars (who were based on South Street). Shortly after the Reformation St Nicholas Hospital (and its lands and revenues) were transferred to the St Andrews burgh council, with the intention they would continue to fund the care of the poor and sick. Poor residents of St Andrews still seem to have been living at St Nicholas in the late sixteenth century. At a subsequent (unknown) date St Nicholas stopped serving as a hospital and became an ordinary farm. The foundations of the medieval hospital were discovered by archaeologists in the late twentieth century during the building of the East Sands Leisure Centre. Excavations at this time also uncovered prehistoric human remains, the oldest of which were carbon dated to between 1530-1310 B.C., implying that there was an early cemetery in this area. Immovable heritage Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:59:59 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 07:59:59 PM
428 The coastline of St Andrews from the air. St Peter’s Chapel may have stood in the area a little to the right of centre of this image. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)) Image Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:07:30 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:07:30 PM
429 St Peter’s Chapel We do not know exactly when St Peter’s Chapel was founded. However, in 1212 there was a reference to ‘two houses by the sea beside the chapel of St Peter’ in a legal dispute between the archdeacon and cathedral of St Andrews. A later document from about 1250 mentions ‘the chapel of St Peter on the road which goes to the castle’. During the nineteenth century a large amount of stone, including some medieval pillar fragments, and several stone coffins (buried facing east) were found in a garden on the north side of North Street. These have been tentatively identified as relating to St Peter’s Chapel. We do not know the fate of St Peter’s Chapel, but it does not seem to be mentioned in sixteenth-century documents from St Andrews. Immovable heritage Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:10:42 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:10:42 PM
430 Seal of St Andrews Cathedral Priory showing St Rule’s Church. The now demolished nave and west frontage can be seen on the left side of the seal. (Source: University of St Andrews Library) Image Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:15:09 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:15:09 PM
431 St Rule’s Church The building now known as St Rule’s Church originally served as St Andrews Cathedral. The church was probably built on the orders of Bishop Robert during the early twelfth century, as part of his effort to modernise worship in St Andrews. Indeed, twelfth-century sources note that before Bishop Robert the main church in St Andrews ‘was very small’. Bishop Robert’s building work was not universally popular, and he had some difficulties raising the necessary funds. The resulting church shows the influence of Norman architecture, and it has been suggested that masons from Yorkshire were employed in its construction. St Rule’s has an impressively tall tower, which can be seen some distance out at sea. For much of the Middle Ages there was a choir to the east of the tower (the remains of which can still be seen) and a nave to the west of the tower (which had already been demolished by the late sixteenth century). Yet even with the nave St Rule’s was not an exceptionally large church. It was probably this lack of space which led the canons of St Andrews to begin work on a much bigger Cathedral in the 1160s. St Rule’s was increasingly sidelined, and became known as ‘the old church’. Nevertheless, the seal of St Andrews Cathedral Priory retained an image of St Rule’s Church into the sixteenth century. Following the Reformation St Rule’s ceased to serve a religious purpose. By the 1780s there were concerns about the stability of St Rule’s Tower, and the Barons of the Exchequer gave money for repairs. This is thought to be the earliest example of government funding for heritage conservation in Scotland. Immovable heritage Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:18:52 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:18:52 PM
432 St Salvator’s Chapel in about 1767. Some of the original windows have been partly blocked up, others are covered with shutters. The medieval stone roof can still be seen. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, OLI-11.) Image Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:22:25 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:22:25 PM
433 St Salvator’s Chapel St Salvator’s College was established in the 1450s by Bishop James Kennedy. The new university college was dedicated to Christ the Saviour, and was intended to resist heresy and increase understanding of ‘divine wisdom’. Kennedy wished to create a college along the lines of those at Oxford and Cambridge, and to this end constructed a large complex of buildings including a dining hall and cloister. Kennedy’s foundation was both a religious and an educational institution. During the Middle Ages worship in the college chapel lay at the heart of life at St Salvator’s. In those days the chapel was lavishly furnished with statues (including a large silver image of Christ the Saviour), paintings, and altar hangings of cloth of gold. Few of these treasures survived the religious upheavals of the sixteenth century. In the summer of 1559 academics were forced to watch as religious images were burned by Protestant activists determined to purge St Andrews of ‘idols’. St Salvator’s ceased being a place of worship at this time, and in 1564 was described as ‘a void house’. However, in the eighteenth-century St Salvator’s once more became a place of worship as the congregation of the parish church of St Leonard relocated here. In 1904, after a legal dispute, the university authorities removed the parishioners of St Leonard’s and took over the running of the chapel. St Salvator’s remains the focus of the main religious services of the University of St Andrews to this day. Immovable heritage Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:23:38 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:25:20 PM
434 The former United Secession Church on North Street. (Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:26:59 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:26:59 PM
435 United Secession Church, 52 North Street The United Secession Church had its origins in the splits within the Church of Scotland in the eighteenth century. The congregation worshipped for some years in the two burgher churches on South Street, but in the 1820s moved to what is now 52 North Street. This remained a place of worship until the 1860s when the congregation relocated to Hope Park Church. Immovable heritage Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:30:38 PM Tuesday 05th of October 2021 08:30:38 PM
436 A naval inspection at Crail Airfield in the early 1940s. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, GMC-5-16-17.) Image Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:09:49 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:09:49 AM
437 Crail Airfield Church During the First World War an airfield was built at Crail, but the site was abandoned following the end of hostilities. At the start of the Second World War Crail was once more brought into military use and expanded to become an important base for aircraft from the Royal Navy. Both men and women served at Crail Airfield and a chapel was built for these service personnel. The chapel had a stained glass window paid for by Wrens and sailors based at Crail in memory of their comrades who lost their lives in World War Two. Following the war the Royal Navy removed most of its aircraft from Crail, but the site continued to be used for military training until 1960. Much of the brick structure of the chapel still survives, although the building is now derelict. Immovable heritage Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:16:05 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:17:06 AM
438 A section of old masonry which perhaps formed part of Crail Castle. (Source: William Jack / University of St Andrews Library, WMJ-EN-115-2.) Image Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:19:06 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:19:06 AM
439 Crail Castle Chapel There appears to have been a castle at Crail by the middle of the twelfth century. In 1359 the castle chapel is described as being dedicated to St Ruffinus – which is thought to be a Latinised form of St Maolrubha (an early medieval saint who was popular in north-west Scotland). There are a number of references to the chapel at Crail Castle in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, including in 1512 when a rent from Drumrack was being used ‘to support divine service in the chapel of St Maolrubha in the castle of Crail’. By the time of the Reformation the castle had fallen into disrepair and in 1563 David Spens of Wormistoun obtained permission to rebuild it. The castle chapel is briefly mentioned in 1620 but then slips out of the written record. By the early eighteenth century Crail Castle was itself in ruins. Today a small section of masonry in Castle Garden is all that remains of this former residence and fortification. Immovable heritage Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:20:29 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:20:29 AM
440 Crail Parish Church in 2021. Marks from the changing rooflines of the church over the centuries can be seen on the tower and end wall of the nave. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews.) Image Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:23:04 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:23:04 AM
441 Crail Parish Church The parish church at Crail has been a place of worship since at least the twelfth century. During the reign of Malcolm IV (who died in 1165) revenues from the parish of Crail were given to the Cistercian nunnery at Haddington. The nuns at Haddington retained significant rights concerning Crail into the sixteenth century. Around 1517 Crail became a collegiate church – in other words it was served by a largely self-governing community of priests. Before the Reformation Crail parish church was lavishly furnished with statues, satin altar hangings, silver and gold crosses, and collections of religious books – all recorded in a surviving inventory. Meanwhile a famous cross known as the Rood of Crail was the focus of pilgrimage. Most of these items were destroyed in the summer of 1559 when John Knox and other Protestant activists descended on Crail. From this point onwards the parish church became the scene of Protestant worship. However, the religious changes were not embraced by everyone. In the 1560s John Melville, the new Protestant minister of Crail, faced considerable disruption to services in the parish church, with members of the congregation threatening to drag him from the pulpit by his ears. Religious controversy continued in Crail throughout the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, although disagreements became increasingly focused on which type of Protestantism should be adopted. In 1648 James Sharp was appointed minister of Crail – he would go on to become archbishop of St Andrews before being murdered by religious opponents. By the early 1800s much of the parish church was in poor repair and the east end had largely fallen out of use. Major rebuilding work took place in the nineteenth century, and further alterations were undertaken in the 1960s. However, significant sections of the medieval church survive, with parts of the tower probably dating from around 1200. Immovable heritage Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:24:51 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:24:51 AM
442 Bankhead Brae in Crail. An Episcopal chapel was located in this area during the early eighteenth century. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews.) Image Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:26:47 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:26:47 AM
443 Episcopal Chapel, Bankhead Brae When the Church of Scotland adopted Presbyterianism at the start of the 1690s a number of ministers refused to support the change. The minister of Crail, Alexander Leslie, was among those who opposed the re-establishment of Presbyterian government and worship. Leslie was removed from his position as minister at Crail parish church and instead set up a small Episcopal congregation. This new congregation built a chapel at Bankhead Brae, overlooking Crail Harbour. The Episcopal community was relatively sympathetic to the Jacobite cause, and when Crail was occupied by Jacobite forces during the winter of 1715 to 1716 they briefly held what the kirk session disapprovingly called ‘the English service’ in the parish church. The associations between Episcopalianism and Jacobitism would prove the undoing of the chapel at Bankhead. In 1745, during the turmoil of another Jacobite rising, supporters of Presbyterianism attacked the Bankhead Brae Episcopal chapel and tore it down. Immovable heritage Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:28:27 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:28:27 AM
444 Holy Trinity Church in 2021. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews.) Image Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:34:22 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:34:22 AM
445 Holy Trinity Catholic Church The site now occupied by Holy Trinity Church has been a place of worship for several different denominations. A church was built here in the 1790s for Crail’s Burgher congregation. In 1847 the congregation became part of the newly created United Presbyterian Church. A few years later, at the end of the 1850s, the original Burgher church was demolished and replaced by the current building. The complex history of the divisions and unions within Scottish Presbyterianism meant that in 1900 the congregation then became part of the United Free Church, and the building became known as Crail West United Free Church. During the Second World War the Roman Catholic Church purchased the site – a project which was undertaken partly because of the significant number of Polish servicemen then stationed at Crail Airfield. It is today known as Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church and remains a place of worship. Immovable heritage Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:37:07 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:37:07 AM
446 The site of the supposed ‘priory’ ruins. (Source: 1895 Ordnance Survey Map of Fife and Kinross, sheet XXIII. Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/75533145) Image Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:40:13 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:40:13 AM
447 ‘Prior Walls’ / Chapel Site by the Sea By the late eighteenth century there was a tradition in Crail that there had once been a medieval priory by the sea, a little to the south of what is now called Prior’s Croft. In reality the name probably arises from the land being owned by the nuns at Haddington Priory. However, there may have been a small chapel in this area in the Middle Ages. In the 1790s it was noted that there stood by the sea ‘a ruin evidently of great antiquity, the east gable of which is still standing’. This ruin bore ‘the name of the prior walls’. The gable (which according to a nineteenth-century writer had ‘Gothic windows’) was washed away by the sea during storms in about 1801. Some foundations remained visible into the 1860s, but by the twentieth century they too had been lost to coastal erosion. Immovable heritage Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:42:39 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:42:39 AM
448 The site of the supposed ‘nunnery’ on Nethergate – perhaps in reality a medieval chapel. (Source: 1855 Ordnance Survey Map of Fife, sheet 20. Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/74426837) Image Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:44:54 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:44:54 AM
449 ‘The Nunnery’ / Chapel Site on Nethergate A plot of land on the south side of the Nethergate in Crail has long been known as ‘The Nunnery’. However, written records suggest that there was at no point a convent of nuns in Crail. The name is perhaps derived from an association with the nuns at Haddington Priory (who owned property in Crail and had for many years the patronage of the parish church). It is possible that there was in the Middle Ages a small chapel on this site. In the nineteenth century human remains were discovered in this area during work to level the road surface. Along the boundary of the property there is an old wall which has been tentatively dated to the sixteenth century. A stone with what appears to be a medieval consecration cross could be seen in this wall in the late twentieth century. Immovable heritage Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:47:13 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:51:21 AM
450 The site of the supposed ‘nunnery’ on Nethergate – perhaps in reality a medieval chapel. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews.) Image Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:50:53 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:50:53 AM
451 Houses on Rose Wynd in 2021. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews.) Image Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:59:38 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 10:59:38 AM
452 Rose Wynd Hall The early nineteenth century saw major divisions in the Church of Scotland over secular interference in religious affairs. In the 1840s a large number of relatively evangelical ministers broke away from the established church and founded the Free Church of Scotland. There was considerable support for the Free Church in Fife, including in Crail. Between 1843 and 1845 the Free Church congregation worshipped in a hall on Rose Wynd. They then moved to a church where Crail Community Hall now stands. Immovable heritage Wednesday 06th of October 2021 11:02:05 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 11:02:54 AM
453 The west gable of Crail Community Hall – formerly St David’s Church. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews.) Image Wednesday 06th of October 2021 11:05:33 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 11:05:33 AM
454 St David’s Church Towards the end of the 1840s the Free Church congregation in Crail built a church on the road then known as Jockeys Port (now called St Andrews Road). The original Victorian building was demolished near the beginning of the twentieth century, and replaced with an imposing Gothic revival building designed by James Davidson Cairns. The new building was influenced by both Scottish and English architectural traditions. In 1929 the Free Church rejoined the Church of Scotland. This meant there was more than one Church of Scotland congregation in Crail, and the former Free Church became known as St David’s. The building continued as a place of worship until the 1950s when it was converted into a church hall. It is now owned by Crail Community Partnership and is run as an event space for the local area under the name Crail Community Hall. Immovable heritage Wednesday 06th of October 2021 11:07:25 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 11:07:25 AM
455 The coast at Kilminning. Remains of what may have been an early chapel have been discovered in this area. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews.) Image Wednesday 06th of October 2021 11:09:09 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 11:11:04 AM
456 Kilminning Chapel On the coast a little way north of the burgh of Crail (near Crail Airfield) is land known as Kilminning. This name is thought to derive from the Gaelic for ‘Church of Monan’. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries human bones were often dug up here. Following the discovery of further human remains in the 1960s, archaeological investigation was undertaken which revealed a long-cist cemetery and a rectangular stone building – possibly the remains of a chapel. The combination of the place name, burials, and foundations strongly suggest that Kilminning was an early medieval religious site. Immovable heritage Wednesday 06th of October 2021 11:12:27 AM Wednesday 06th of October 2021 11:12:27 AM
457 Methil Hill Cemetery (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021) Image Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:08:06 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:08:06 PM
458 Methil Hill Parish Church The church of the medieval parish of Methil (spelt Methilkil or Methilhill) was located inland, on the banks of the River Leven about a mile and a half from its mouth. It is first recorded in 1207 and 1218. The archbishops of St Andrews gifted the patronage of the church of Methil to the Wemyss family in 1571, and the parish itself was annexed to Wemyss sometime between 1614 and 1638. The church was abandoned at this point, but some remains could still be seen as late as 1838, and an excavation in the 1920s found the foundations of a large structure. The graveyard remained in use even after the church was abandoned, and contains headstones from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Immovable heritage Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:10:20 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:10:20 PM
459 Methil West Church From the early 1600s to 1838 Methil was part of the parish of Wemyss and the congregation attended the church in Easter Wemyss. Following an increase in the population in the early nineteenth century, a church was built in the High Street with room for 800 and at a cost of £1030. Following the Great Disruption of 1843, the church appears to have been shut, but was operational again by 1876. When a larger parish church was built in Methil in 1922-24 (now known as Wellesley Parish Church of Scotland) the West Church fell out of use. For some years it was used as a practice hall for the Wellesley Colliery band, and later as a storehouse until it was finally demolished in 1981. Immovable heritage Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:13:47 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:13:47 PM
460 Scottish Coast Mission (Source: Places of Worship in Scotland) Image Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:16:46 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:16:46 PM
461 Scottish Coastal Mission, Methil The Scottish Coastal Mission, founded in 1850, was a Protestant organisation dedicated to ministering to sailors and maritime communities. By 1861 they employed 10 missionaries and had 29 stations along the east coast of Scotland. They began services in Methil in 1892, and opened the building known as the ‘Seaman's Bethel’ on Dock Street in 1904 at a cost of £8000. It was still active in 1952, but has since closed and been demolished. Immovable heritage Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:17:51 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:17:51 PM
462 Methil Free Church Following the Great Disruption in 1843, a quod sacra Free Church parish was set up in Methil, before a full mission was established in 1852. The mission initially met at the Salt Girnel, before in 1882 a full congregation was formed in Methil, and in 1890 a new church was constructed at the corner of Fisher Street and High Street at a cost of £700. In 1929 the congregation re-joined the Church of Scotland, changing its name to Methil East in the process. In 1942 there was a union between Methil East and the newly constructed Innerleven East Parish Church, and the congregation moved to the new church. The former Free Church was used as a workshop by a local taxi firm for some time, before it was demolished in 1978. No trace now remains. Immovable heritage Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:20:18 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:20:18 PM
463 German Seaman’s Mission (Source: Vintage Lundin Links and Largo). Image Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:21:21 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:21:21 PM
464 German Seaman’s Mission, Methil As a result of the large numbers of German sailors visiting Methil annually in the late nineteenth century a missionary from the German Church in Edinburgh (located in Leith) began to make periodical visits to the town. In 1898 the heads of that church decided to send a permanent missionary and they opened a church on Durie Street in 1900. The mission was suspended during World War I, and in the 1920s and 1930s the pastor was Gunner Belflage, a Swedish masseur who also opened a tea garden in Lundin Links. The mission was permanently closed at the outbreak of World War II, and is now a private house. Immovable heritage Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:25:14 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:25:14 PM
465 St Agatha’s Roman Catholic Church, Methil (Source: Bess Rhodes) Image Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:26:28 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:26:28 PM
466 St Agatha’s Roman Catholic Church, Methil Nearly four centuries after the Protestant Reformation, a Roman Catholic congregation returned to Methil with the opening of a church in 1903. Located on Methil Brae and called St Agatha’s, the congregation had expanded to such an extent that in the early 1920s the decision was taken to build a new church on a site nearby. Designed by Reginald Fairlie, who was also responsible for Methil Parish Church (1924-25), the foundation stone was laid by Bishop Graham Grey of Edinburgh, and it was opened in 1923. Old St Agatha’s was demolished and the site is now home to a nursery. Inside can be found some distinctive stained glass by the artist John Blyth, including the Lady Chapel with Holy Family and Nativity scenes, triptych style scenes in the north west transept depicting Mary with Jesus flanked by angels, and saints. The nave has images of saints Ninian, Patrick, Columba, Mungo, Cuthbert, Magnus, David, John Ogilvie, Andrew, Agatha and Margaret, and Peter appearing to St Agatha. A hall was added to the church in the 1960s and it remains and active church. Immovable heritage Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:28:42 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:28:42 PM
467 Wellesley Parish Church, Methil (Source: Bess Rhodes) Image Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:29:59 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:29:59 PM
468 Methil (Wellesley) Parish Church In the early 1920s the steady growth of the population of the town led the Church of Scotland to construct a new parish church in Methil to replace the West Church (1838). Land on Wellesley Road was gifted by the Wemyss family and the commission was given to Reginald Fairlie, who was also responsible for St Agatha’s Roman Catholic Church completed in 1923. Fairlie was influenced by medieval church architecture, and reputedly used the plans of the medieval parish church of Methilhill (excavated in the early 1920s) in his designs for both St Agatha’s and Methil Parish Church on Wellesley Road, although this influence is perhaps more obvious in the latter. The design includes nave, transepts and a choir separated from the body of the church by an organ screen and a cloister and chapter house. In 2012 there was a union between the church and that of Innerleven East, and since the merger it is now known as Wellesley Parish Church of Scotland. Immovable heritage Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:32:17 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:32:17 PM
469 Methil and Denbeath Parish Church (Source: Bess Rhodes) Image Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:33:26 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:33:26 PM
470 Methil and Denbeath Parish Church In 1931, some 300 years after the closure of the parish church in Methilhill, a new Church of Scotland parish church was constructed on Chemiss Road, close to the site of the medieval church. As with the new Methil Parish Church on Wellesley Road, the opening of the new church was necessitated by the growing population of Methil, in particular the mining districts inland from the port. Originally known as Methilhill Parish Church, it was constructed in 1931 in a style described by Gifford as Cheap gothic. As hall was added in the 1960s and there was a major repair in 2007, by which time, following a union with the Denbeath Parish Church, it had been renamed Methil and Denbeath Parish Church. It remains in use today. Immovable heritage Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:34:39 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:34:39 PM
471 Methil Evangelical Church (Source; Bess Rhodes) Image Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:37:51 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:37:51 PM
472 Flying Angel Military Chapel, Methil Shortly after the start of World War II a small chapel was built in Methil Docks to cater to the dock personnel and those involved in war production at the site. The chapel was demolished at the end of the war and its exact location is unknown. Immovable heritage Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:40:48 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:40:48 PM
473 Methil Tin Kirk In 1952 Alexander Smith listed a number what he described as Other religious bodies in Methil, including a Gospel Hall, the Central Gospel Mission and the Methil Town Mission. One of these was the Spiritualist Church, located on Methil Brae. It was closed by the 1970s the building was sold. It was demolished soon after and is now the site of a private house. Immovable heritage Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:43:28 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:43:28 PM
474 Gospel Hall, Methil In 1952 Alexander Smith listed a number what he described as Other religious bodies in Methil, including a Gospel Hall, the Central Gospel Mission and the Methil Town Mission. The Gospel Hall was found on Wellesley Road. It is unclear when it fell out of use, but the building was later used as a warehouse and is now empty. A new Gospel congregation can be found in the High Street of Lower Methil. Known as Innerleven Gospel Hall, they are a small group not affiliated to any other church, who meet on a Sunday and Tuesday. Immovable heritage Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:46:44 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:46:44 PM
475 Central Gospel Mission Revival Centre, Methil In 1952 Alexander Smith listed a number what he described as Other religious bodies in Methil, including a Gospel Hall, the Central Gospel Mission and the Methil Town Mission. It is unclear where that organisation met, but a group with the same name have a premises on Herriot Crescent. They meet on Sunday and Monday, and host a choir and children and youth clubs. Immovable heritage Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:48:43 PM Tuesday 09th of November 2021 03:48:43 PM
476 St Mary’s By the Sea (Source: Richard Fawcett 2012) Image Monday 15th of November 2021 03:35:38 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 03:35:38 PM
477 St Mary's By the Sea, East Wemyss The parish church of St Mary in East Wemyss, first recorded c.1230, belonged successively to the Hospital of Soutra and the Church of the Holy Trinity in Edinburgh in the Middle Ages. The church was largely rebuilt in the 1520s, and considerable alterations were made to it in the early 1600s, including the construction of a family mausoleum outside the church by the earl of Wemyss, which would become known as the Wemyss Aisle. Although considered to small for the parish by the nineteenth century, repairs were carried out in the late 1800s, which, combined with the addition of a hall in the 1920s, have made it difficult for architectural historians to judge how much of the medieval structure remains. In 1976 there was a union between St Mary’s and St George’s Church in East Wemyss and St Adrian’s in West Wemyss. As a result, St Mary’s was closed for worship. It was first converted into a recording studio, and since 1985 it has been used as a private house. Immovable heritage Monday 15th of November 2021 03:37:34 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 03:37:34 PM
478 St_Mary_s_Chapel_west_wemyss.jpg Image Monday 15th of November 2021 03:38:16 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 03:38:16 PM
479 St Mary’s Chapel, West Wemyss St Mary’s Chapel in West Wemyss was connected to the parish church in East Wemyss, as a dispute of 1527-28 noted that offerings at the chapel should be paid to the patrons of that church. No record survives of when the chapel was constructed, although there is an interesting, but unlikely, local legend that it was founded by Spaniards fleeing the Inquisition in the late fifteenth century. The purpose of the chapel is also unclear from the surviving documents. It may have been a private place of worship belonging to the Wemyss family as it is located in the gardens of the castle and seems to have been under their patronage. However, it was also connected to the parish church, so it may have been an early chapel-at-ease for the villagers of West Wemyss. The chapel was abandoned at the Reformation, before being converted into a four-storey house by David, 1st earl of Wemyss in the 1620s. Some ruins of the house still survive. Immovable heritage Monday 15th of November 2021 03:40:17 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 03:40:17 PM
480 St_Adrian_s_West_Wemyss.jpg Image Monday 15th of November 2021 03:42:35 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 03:42:35 PM
481 St Adrian’s Parish Church, West Wemyss A Church of Scotland ‘chapel at ease’ was built in what is now Church Street in West Wemyss in 1835. It was intended to save the villagers the long walk to East Wemyss. This structure was replaced by a full parish church in 1895, and briefly served as a local gymnasium before it was demolished to make way for housing in the 1930s. The new church, built on Main Street by the architect Alexander Tod and mainly funded by the Wemyss family, was called St Adrian’s. In the 1960s the cost of repairs led the Church of Scotland to make a decision to close St Adrian’s. However, it was saved in 1972 by Captain Michael Wemyss who established the Wemyss Trust to fund the repairs and future maintenance. In 1976 there was a union between the congregation and those of St Mary’s and St George’s in East Wemyss to form a new entity known as Wemyss Parish Church. This continued until there was a further union with Buckhaven Parish Church in 2008. Since that date one minister serves the newly named parish of Buckhaven and Wemyss Parish, with services alternating between Buckhaven and West Wemyss. Immovable heritage Monday 15th of November 2021 03:43:55 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 03:43:55 PM
482 St George’s Church, East Wemyss (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021) Image Monday 15th of November 2021 03:44:43 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 03:44:43 PM
483 St George’s Parish Church, East Wemyss At the Great Disruption in 1843 a large group of the congregation of East Wemyss parish church broke away and joined the Free Church. They began building a church in Main Street the following year and it opened for worship in 1846. In 1929 the congregation re-joined the Church of Scotland and took on the name St George’s, moving to a new building in 1936-37. The old church was used as a storeroom for a factory, and was finally demolished in 1995 to make way for a sewage works. The new church, described by Gifford as competent dead end Gothic revival, was united with St Adrian’s in West Wemyss in 1973, and with St Mary’s in 1976 to become Wemyss Parish Church. This continued until a further union in 2008, this time with Buckhaven Parish Church, led to the closure of St George’s. Immovable heritage Monday 15th of November 2021 03:46:21 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 03:46:21 PM
484 Site of Buckhaven Links Church (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007) Image Monday 15th of November 2021 04:55:09 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 04:55:09 PM
485 Buckhaven Links Church In 1739 a Buckhaven resident and one of the elders of Wemyss Parish Church, Mr John Thomson, seceded from the Church of Scotland with a number of others and joined the Burgher Church. They attended first Bethelfield Associate Church in Kirkcaldy, and later Kennoway Arnot Church (after 1750), before in 1792 a number of local residents applied to the Burgher Presbytery of Dunfermline to form a congregation in Buckhaven. This was accepted, and a congregation numbering around 90 was formed in 1794, moving into their own church on the Links in 1795. By 1869, now part of the United Presbyterian Church, the decision was taken to construct a new, larger, place of worship on Church Street. The old links church was converted into houses, and the whole area was buried under refuse from Wellesley colliery in the early 1900s. Immovable heritage Monday 15th of November 2021 04:56:44 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 04:56:44 PM
486 Buckhaven and Wemyss Parish Church (Source: Presbytery of Kirkcaldy, 2021) Image Monday 15th of November 2021 04:58:06 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 04:58:06 PM
487 St David’s Church, Buckhaven By 1869, the congregation of the United Presbyterian Church on Buckhaven Links took the decision to construct a new, larger, place of worship on Church Street. The new building, called St David’s, was capable of seating 860 people and built at a cost of £2,600, was opened on 12 April. It had a congregation of 558 when the United Presbyterian Church entered a union with the Free Church of Scotland in 1900 to become the United Free Church. The congregation decided to join the Church of Scotland in 1929. In 1972, there was a union between Buckhaven’s three Church of Scotland charges (St Michael’s, St Andrew’s and St David’s) to form Buckhaven Parish Church. In 2008 that congregation united with Wemyss to form Buckhaven and Wemyss Parish Church. Services are held in West Wemyss (St Adrian’s) and Buckhaven (St David’s). Immovable heritage Monday 15th of November 2021 05:00:15 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 05:00:15 PM
488 St Andrew’s Church, Buckhaven (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007) Image Monday 15th of November 2021 05:01:36 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 05:01:36 PM
489 St Andrew’s Church, Buckhaven After the Great Disruption of 1843, adherents of the Free Church in Buckhaven initially attended the church in East Wemyss, before the decision was taken to form a separate congregation in the town in 1866. About 140 members of the church at East Wemyss joined the new congregation, and in 1870 they purchased an Episcopal Chapel first built in North Street, St Andrews (1824-25) for £130. It was dismantled and carried brick by brick to Buckhaven on Thomas Walker's boat 'The Sea King' and opened in 1870. It had a congregation of 240 in 1900, when it became a United Free Church, and continued as such until the congregation united with St David’s and St Michael’s in 1972. The building was closed until 1987 when it was converted into a theatre. Immovable heritage Monday 15th of November 2021 05:03:03 PM Monday 29th of November 2021 12:32:32 PM
490 St Michael’s Church, Buckhaven In 1901 a Church of Scotland ‘chapel at ease’ was established to serve the inhabitants of Buckhaven. Constructed in St Michael’s Street, it became a full parish church in 1929, and was known as Buckhaven Parish Church until 1972 when there was a union between Buckhaven’s three Church of Scotland charges (St Michael’s, St Andrew’s and St David’s) to form Buckhaven Parish Church. At that date it was found to need extensive repairs and the decision was taken to demolish it. Private residences were then erected on the site and no signs of the church remain, although its baptismal font can be found in the grounds of Buckhaven and Wemyss Parish Church (St David’s). Immovable heritage Monday 15th of November 2021 05:05:05 PM Monday 29th of November 2021 12:31:40 PM
491 Buckhaven Baptist Church (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007) Image Monday 15th of November 2021 05:06:00 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 05:06:00 PM
492 Buckhaven Baptist Church Buckhaven’s Baptist Church was formed in the early 1900s as part of a wider revival moment in Fife. The earliest mission began in November of 1908, with a church formally founded in 1910. This early congregation had 20 members and met in the Rechabite Hall, before building their own church in College Street in 1915. Capable of seating 200, it was built by G. C Campbell. The congregation remains active and has been on the same site for more than a century. Immovable heritage Monday 15th of November 2021 05:07:14 PM Monday 29th of November 2021 12:25:20 PM
493 Salvation Army (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007) Image Monday 15th of November 2021 05:08:04 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 05:08:04 PM
494 Salvation Army, Buckhaven A corps of the Salvation Army was first launched in Buckhaven in 1897, fell into abeyance and but was re-founded in 1936. They met in Mullin Hall until 1978 when they moved to their current site in Michael Street in a former telephone exchange. They are still active in Buckhaven. Immovable heritage Monday 15th of November 2021 05:09:48 PM Monday 29th of November 2021 12:29:51 PM
495 Buckhaven Christian Fellowship The Buckhaven Christian Fellowship moved into the building on Institution Street in 1969. It had formerly been a United Free Church constructed in 1934. The Fellowship were a Pentecostal Church, originally known as the Assembly of God. The group had left the site some time before 2006, when it the building was demolished and sold to make way for houses. Immovable heritage Monday 15th of November 2021 05:12:40 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 05:12:40 PM
496 Buckhaven Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007) Image Monday 15th of November 2021 05:13:41 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 05:13:41 PM
497 Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buckhaven Jehovah’s Witnesses were first established in Buckhaven in 1971, moving into a building constructed c.1900 and previously occupied by a group known as the Church of Christ. The building underwent significant renovation in 1980, and is still in active use. Immovable heritage Monday 15th of November 2021 05:17:08 PM Monday 29th of November 2021 12:30:51 PM
498 Buckhaven Church of God (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007). Image Monday 15th of November 2021 05:20:11 PM Monday 15th of November 2021 05:20:11 PM
499 Buckhaven Church of God The Buckhaven Church of God was formed as a breakaway from the Open Brethren in 1986. They are an evangelical organisation part of the global organisation known as the Churches of God. The church is still active. Immovable heritage Monday 15th of November 2021 05:21:26 PM Monday 29th of November 2021 12:27:43 PM
500 Buckhaven Baptist Church (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021) Image Monday 29th of November 2021 12:25:12 PM Monday 29th of November 2021 12:25:12 PM
501 Buckhaven Church of God (Bess Rhodes, 2021) Image Monday 29th of November 2021 12:27:36 PM Monday 29th of November 2021 12:27:36 PM
502 Buckhaven Parish Church (formerly St Davids) (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021) Image Monday 29th of November 2021 12:28:57 PM Monday 29th of November 2021 12:28:57 PM
503 Buckhaven Salvation Army (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021) Image Monday 29th of November 2021 12:29:45 PM Monday 29th of November 2021 12:29:45 PM
504 Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buckhaven (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021) Image Monday 29th of November 2021 12:30:44 PM Monday 29th of November 2021 12:30:44 PM
505 Font of St Michael’s Church, Buckhaven (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021) Image Monday 29th of November 2021 12:31:33 PM Monday 29th of November 2021 12:31:33 PM
506 St Andrew’s Church, Buckhaven (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021) Image Monday 29th of November 2021 12:32:27 PM Monday 29th of November 2021 12:32:27 PM
507 Abdie Old Parish Church (Bess Rhodes). Image Thursday 24th of November 2022 04:15:14 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 04:15:14 PM
508 Abdie Old Parish Church There has been a parish church at Abdie since at least the 1190s. For most of the Middle Ages the rectorship of Abdie was held by Lindores Abbey. The abbey benefited from income from the parish, and in exchange appointed a vicar who was meant to take services and care for the local community. In the 1450s the vicar of Abdie was an unsatisfactory character named John Laing. It was alleged that Laing was ‘an open and notorious fornicator’ who was ‘ignorant of letters and unfit to hold divine office’. After this there may have been efforts to find Abdie a more educated priest, as in 1466 a university graduate named Alexander Meldrum became vicar. Until the late 1550s many of the parishioners of Abdie seem to have supported traditional Catholic piety. However, after the Reformation the structures of the new Protestant Church of Scotland were established relatively quickly. At the start of the 1660s the medieval church was extended by the addition of an aisle on the north side. The new aisle was funded by the then minister Alexander Balfour and his family, who lived at nearby Denmylne Castle. In 1689 the minister of Abdie, William Arnott, was removed from his post for refusing to accept William and Mary as monarchs. Perhaps chastened by this experience, many of the eighteenth-century ministers of Abdie appear to have avoided political controversy. Indeed, Thomas Millar (minister from 1788 to 1792) was described by contemporaries as being ‘distinguished for sedateness’. However, this was not the approach adopted by Robert Thomas, who became minister of Abdie in 1796. The new parish minister became involved in political writing, publishing an attack on the revolutionary theories of Thomas Paine. At over 430 pages it was one of the longest eighteenth-century responses to Paine’s work. Robert Thomas also became involved in a bitter dispute about his glebe (the area of land assigned to a parish minister). The disagreement about the glebe went all the way to the House of Lords, which was then the highest court of appeal in the United Kingdom. By the time of Robert Thomas, the medieval church at Abdie was deemed increasingly out of date. It was criticised as ‘an old narrow building, low in the walls, and poorly lighted’. In the 1820s the congregation moved to a new building a short distance away. The old church soon fell into disrepair and by 1836 was in ruins. Today the building is completely roofless, though most of the external walls still stand. Several notable medieval and early modern tombstones can be found in and around the old church. Immovable heritage Thursday 24th of November 2022 04:17:44 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 04:24:55 PM
509 Abdie and Dunbog Parish Church (Bess Rhodes). Image Thursday 24th of November 2022 04:29:08 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 04:29:08 PM
510 Abdie and Dunbog Parish Church Abdie and Dunbog Parish Church opened its doors in 1827. It was built to replace Abdie’s medieval parish church. The architects for the new building were James Milne and William Burn. In the 1830s the new church was described by the minister of Abdie as a ‘plain substantial building’. It was intended to accommodate between 500 and 600 people (perhaps standing close together). In the 1960s the parish of Abdie united with the nearby parish of Dunbog, and the parish church at Dunbog closed a little later. Abdie and Dunbog is now part of a new parish known as Lindores, which covers Newburgh as well. On Sundays the same minister celebrates services in the Church of Scotland parish church in Newburgh, and the church at Abdie. Immovable heritage Thursday 24th of November 2022 04:33:04 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 04:33:04 PM
511 The site of the Mares Craig quarry in the early twentieth century. (Source: 1920 Ordnance Survey map of Fife and Kinross, Sheet VI.SE. Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/75530896). Image Thursday 24th of November 2022 04:39:02 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 04:39:02 PM
512 Mares Craig Quarry The hill known as Mares Craig was for many years a stone quarry. In the 1920s a Celtic handbell, of the type associated with early medieval religious foundations, was discovered here, along with a considerable number of dressed stones and lime mortar. Human remains, some of them in what may have been long cists (a type of stone box for burials), were also found in the area during the early twentieth century. It is therefore possible that Mares Craig was the site of an early medieval chapel. Unfortunately, the likeliest locations for this building have since been destroyed by quarrying. The place-name Mares Craig may also have religious associations. The name is recorded as far back as 1541, when it was spelled ‘Mariscrag’. It is thought that this may be a reference to the Virgin Mary (to whom the nearby Lindores Abbey was dedicated). Immovable heritage Thursday 24th of November 2022 04:43:35 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 04:43:35 PM
513 The site of the old Baptist chapel in Newburgh. (Source: 1855 Ordnance Survey Map of Fife, sheet 4. Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/74426821) Image Thursday 24th of November 2022 05:43:49 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 05:43:49 PM
514 Baptist Chapel, South Side of High Street In 1808 a Baptist chapel was founded in Newburgh. The congregation was established by Archibald McLean, who was leading figure in the Scotch Baptists (a group which developed in Edinburgh in the eighteenth-century and was rather more hardline than the English Baptist tradition). The congregation initially worshipped in a chapel on the south side of the High Street in a wynd known as Mr Ramsay’s Close. The first pastor of the congregation was a linen manufacturer called James Wilkie. He was succeeded in around 1840 by Alexander Craighead – who also served as school-master and post-master of Newburgh. Craighead was a skilled Hebrew scholar and apparently ‘revelled in the Book of God in the original language’. One of the last pastors of what became known as the ‘Old Chapel’ was James Wood, who was converted to Baptist beliefs by his wife Christian Wilkie. Wood was baptised in the River Tay and, together with his spouse, helped expand the Baptist congregation in Newburgh. In the 1880s the Baptists moved to a larger church on the north side of the High Street. The fate of the original chapel on Ramsay’s Close is uncertain. Immovable heritage Thursday 24th of November 2022 05:46:28 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 05:47:54 PM
515 The former Baptist church on the north side of the High Street in Newburgh. This building was in use as a place of worship until the 2010s. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Thursday 24th of November 2022 05:51:32 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 05:51:32 PM
516 -1.xml The Baptist Chapel on the north side of the High Street in Newburgh was built in the early 1880s. It replaced an earlier chapel on a wynd on the south side of the same street. The funds for the new building were largely raised by James W. Wood, who was chairman of Tayside Floorcloth Company. Around this time several Baptists (including Wood) were influential on the Newburgh town council. The Baptists seem to have had a presence in Newburgh beyond the official membership of their church. In the early 1900s the pastor noted that while the Newburgh Baptist Church had about thirty ‘regular adherents’ (presumably people who could be relied upon to attend Sunday services), the ‘average attendance’ at their Wednesday evening prayer meeting was forty people, and that between forty and fifty also attended their ‘class’ (possibly a reference to some form of Sunday school). An active Baptist congregation continued in Newburgh into the early twenty-first century. However, in the 2010s the church closed. The former Baptist church has since been converted into a house. Immovable heritage Thursday 24th of November 2022 05:54:05 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 05:54:05 PM
517 The former burgher chapel in Newburgh. The building now provides holiday accommodation. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Thursday 24th of November 2022 05:57:13 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 05:57:13 PM
518 Burgher Church / United Presbyterian Church A Burgher Church was built on the west side of Clinton Street in the 1780s. The Burghers were a break-away movement from the Church of Scotland and enjoyed considerable support in Newburgh. In the 1790s the local Church of Scotland minister commented that the ‘Burgher Seceders may exceed one third of the whole inhabitants of the parish’. In the 1820s most of the Burgher churches in Scotland joined with the Anti-Burghers (a related movement which adopted a more severe line on engagement in civic life) to create the new United Secession Church. Not long after this, in the 1830s, the church on the west side of Clinton Street was expanded. In 1847 there was further reorganisation and the congregation became part of the United Presbyterians. Sadly for much of the late nineteenth century the congregation was split by bitter feuding, and in the 1890s the minister John Brown apparently gave ‘serious offence to a large section of his people’ by a controversial sermon on the evils of alcohol. At the start of the twentieth century the congregation became known as Newburgh West United Free Church (following the union of the United Presbyterians and the Free Church). However, numbers attending the church had already declined significantly. By 1912 the site seems to have stopped being used for worship and was functioning as a drill hall. The former church was used by Polish units during the Second World War. It later became a weaving centre and now serves as holiday accommodation. Immovable heritage Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:00:00 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:00:00 PM
519 Ruins of Lindores Abbey. This photograph looks across what would once have been the cloister. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:07:44 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:07:44 PM
520 Lindores Abbey Lindores Abbey was founded in the late twelfth century by David, Earl of Huntingdon. The earl had recently fought in the Third Crusade and established the abbey to give thanks to God for his safe return to Scotland. Lindores was a Tironesian monastery. The Tironesians were at that time a relatively new religious order, and were part of a movement for a stricter style of monastic life. Lindores Abbey would go on to play a major role in shaping the medieval development of the south side of the River Tay. In the 1260s the abbot and monks of Lindores were instrumental in founding the new urban settlement of Newburgh. They also introduced new farming practices on their estates, including establishing reknowned orchards. In the early 1500s fruit trees from Lindores Abbey were sent to Stirling Castle to develop the royal orchards. The monks of Lindores also undertook distilling. In the 1490s a brother at the abbey named Jon Cor received a delivery of malt for producing ‘aquavitae’ for King James IV. This is thought to be the earliest reference to whisky production in Scotland. The monastery appears to have thrived up until the period of the Scottish Reformation, when it was sacked in June 1559 by Protestant activists led by John Knox. Many of the religious furnishings of the abbey were burned in front of the monks and they were forced to reject Catholicism. Lindores Abbey ceased to serve a religious purpose after this date. The southern area of the monastery is now occupied by Lindores Distillery, while the ruins of the church and cloister can be visited by the public as part of tours of the distillery. Immovable heritage Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:10:08 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:10:08 PM
521 Gothic revival carving above the main entrance to Newburgh Parish Church. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:12:35 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:14:09 PM
522 Newburgh Parish Church (Formerly United Free Church) Newburgh Parish Church was built in the early 1900s. It originally served as the United Free Church. The building was designed by the Dundee architects Patrick Thoms and William Wilkie (who had then newly gone into partnership together). In 1929 the United Free Church rejoined the Church of Scotland. A few decades later in the 1960s it was decided that Newburgh no longer required two Church of Scotland congregations. At this point St Katherine’s (Newburgh’s original parish church) closed, and the former United Free Church building became the main parish church for Newburgh. In the early twenty-first century the Church of Scotland congregation in Newburgh joined with the congregation in Abdie to create a new parish known as Lindores. Services are currently held at both the Newburgh and the Abdie sites. Immovable heritage Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:16:44 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:16:44 PM
523 The impressive street frontage of St Katherine’s Parish Church in the mid-twentieth century. (Source: Newburgh Ancestry and History Society) Image Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:19:28 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:19:28 PM
524 St Katherine’s Chapel / Parish Church For several centuries St Katherine’s Church (which was formerly located on the north side of the High Street) served as Newburgh’s parish church. The church is first recorded in 1470 when it was described as ‘the chapel of St Katherine the Virgin’. At this point the chapel seems to have already been an established place of worship. In 1508 there is a reference to funds being put aside for the ‘new kirk’ which was to be built in the burgh of Newburgh in honour of St Duthac, St Katherine, and St Mary Magdalene. It is thought that this relates to a remodelling and expansion of the original chapel of St Katherine. Unlike many Scottish chapels St Katherine’s survived the Reformation as a place of worship. In the early seventeenth century St Katherine’s became a parish church when Newburgh split from the parish of Abdie. Some restoration work was undertaken on St Katherine’s in the late eighteenth century. In the 1790s the building was described by the parish minister Thomas Stuart as ‘an old Popish chapel... which, in consequence of a late thorough repair, has been made a very convenient place of worship’. Later generations did not agree with this assessment. In 1832 the medieval church was demolished and replaced with a new building designed by the notable Edinburgh architect William Burn. Slightly ironically Burn’s design was in the Gothic revival style. The nineteenth-century St Katherine’s Church was an impressive building, which for many decades dominated the High Street. However, in the 1960s St Katherine’s was demolished and the congregation moved to the current Newburgh Parish Church (which stands more towards the eastern edge of Newburgh). The site is now occupied by a garden and flats known as St Katherine’s Court. Immovable heritage Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:22:02 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:22:02 PM
525 The site once occupied by St Katherine’s Episcopal Mission Church. The stone wall and iron gates are all that remain from the former church. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:26:25 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:26:25 PM
526 St Katherine’s Episcopal Mission Church There were some Episcopalian families in Newburgh in the eighteenth century. However, they do not appear to have had an official place of worship. In the 1890s a small Episcopal Chapel was built on the corner of Abbey Road. In the 1920s a peal of bells was given to the chapel in honour of the men of the parish who lost their lives in the First World War. A stone memorial tablet was also created at this time. This building was demolished in 1987. The site is now occupied by housing. The low stone wall and metal gates which once surrounded the chapel can still be seen. Immovable heritage Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:29:23 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:29:23 PM
527 The United Reform Church on Clinton Street. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:43:30 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:43:30 PM
528 United Reformed Church (formerly Congregational Church) On the east side of Clinton Street stands Newburgh’s United Reformed Church. This building has a complicated denominational history. In the early 1840s over a hundred people who disagreed with the congregation at the former Burgher Church on Clinton Street banded together to create a Relief Church congregation which worshipped in the town hall. They subsequently joined the United Presbyterian Church, and around 1850 built what is now the United Reform Church. As a result for much of the mid-nineteenth century there were two United Presbyterian churches on Clinton Street (the other being the former Burgher Church on the west side of the street). In the 1870s it was suggested that the two congregations should merge together. However, the members of what is now the United Reform Church objected to this plan, and determined ‘to try their fortunes elsewhere’. As a result they left the United Presbyterians in favour of the Evangelical Union, which by the 1890s had become part of the Congregational Church. In 2000 the Congregational Union of Scotland joined the United Reformed Church, meaning that the affiliation of the church on Clinton Street changed once again. The building is still a place of worship with regular Sunday services. Immovable heritage Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:45:37 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:45:37 PM
529 The west end of the former Livingstone Hall. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews) Image Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:48:57 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:48:57 PM
530 Livingstone Hall The building now occupied by Newburgh Flooring is widely believed to have once been a church. In reality for much of its history it appears to have functioned as a church hall. In 1885 John Livingstone paid for the construction of a stone hall for 500 to 600 people on the east side of Newburgh. The hall was designed by the Dundee architect John Young, and cost £1,450. The building became known as Livingstone Hall in his honour. In the late 1920s the Church of Scotland took on responsibility for the building. The property documents recording this transfer specified that Livingstone Hall should be used for Sunday schools, Bible classes, choir practices, religious education, ‘benevolent purposes’, and lectures and entertainments ‘of an instructive and elevating character’. In the 1960s Livingstone Hall was converted to a garage, and significant alterations were made to the building. It is currently home to a local company selling flooring materials. The west end of the building still has the pointed nineteenth-century windows from the original hall, although much of the rest of the structure has been transformed. Immovable heritage Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:51:54 PM Thursday 24th of November 2022 06:51:54 PM