Browse Items (515 total)
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)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…
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))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 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)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…
The remains of St Mary’s on the Rock. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)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…
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)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…
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)Little is known about the medieval chapel of St Mary Magdalene. Sixteenth-century property records indicate that it was located within the cathedral…
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)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…
The newly built St Leonard’s Church in about 1904. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, JV44554.)
St Andrew’s Chapel in about 1865. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, ALB-10-62.)
The former Salvation Army Hall on North Street, now a restaurant known as ‘The Rav’. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)
The Meeting House for the Society of Friends on Howard Place. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)
St John's, Inverkeithing (Source: Bess Rhodes)
Inverkeithing Episcopal Church (Source: Bess Rhodes)
Inverkeithing Baptist Church (Source: Bess Rhodes)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…
St Serf’s Roman Catholic Church (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007)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…
Culross Free Church (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007).Shortly after the Reformation, the presbytery, transepts choir and tower of the Abbey were converted into the parish church of Culross. This situation…
Bruce of Culross and Carnock Monument (Source: Bess Rhodes)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…
St Mungo’s Chapel (Source: Ewan Malecki (October 2007).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…
Culross Church Exterior (Source Fawcett, 2011)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…
Culross Abbey Tower (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021)Although Culross only enters the written record in the 1200s, it is clear from archaeological evidence that a community had existed there long before…
Anstruther Wester (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021)
Anstruther Easter Parish Church (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021)
St Fillan's Church, Aberdour (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021)
Hope Street and Howard Place in St Andrews near to the Friends Meeting House. (Source: Jim Bain / Wikimedia)
The former Christian Brethren Hall on Greenside Place. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)
The former burgher kirk on Imrie’s Close. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)
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)After the Jacobite rising of 1715 the British government became increasingly suspicious of Scottish Episcopalians. Ministers in the Scottish Episcopal…
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)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…
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)When Presbyterianism was re-established in 1690 the Scottish Parliament also passed legislation banning Christmas. In 1712 this ban was lifted and the…
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)The British government was initially more tolerant of Episcopalians than the Scottish Parliament had been. In 1711 the laws against Episcopal…
The Victorian artist John Philip imagines an eighteenth-century Scottish baptism in a private house. (Credit: Aberdeen Art Gallery)Lobbying from Scottish aristocrats led to the passing of the Church Patronage Act. This stated that the old patrons of Scottish parishes (typically…
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)After much debate, the parliaments of Scotland and England passed legislation to create a new Kingdom of Great Britain. The Scottish Parliament in…
Engraving of Queen Anne by J.C. Marchand. Anne was the first ruler of the newly created United Kingdom. (Credit: National Galleries of Scotland)Many of Fife’s Episcopal clergymen were removed from their parishes by the restoration of Presbyterianism. In 1695 the Scottish Parliament passed a…
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)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…
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)Archbishop James Sharp was a divisive religious leader. Many Presbyterians felt that he had sold out the Church of Scotland by agreeing to become…
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)In 1660 the English invited Charles II to return as king. Shortly afterwards Charles set about overturning the religious changes of the previous…
An engraving of King Charles II by William Fairthorne. (Credit: National Galleries 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…
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)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…
A woodcut showing protestors objecting to Archbishop Spottiswoode's efforts to introduce the Scottish Prayer Book. (Credit: Wikimedia)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…
An anonymous engraving of King James VI and I. (Credit: National Galleries of Scotland)Reading the Bible formed a vital part of Protestant religious activity. In particular Protestants believed that people should have access to the Bible…
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)The later decades of the sixteenth century saw ongoing tensions about how radical the Church of Scotland should be. Many of these arguments became…
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)By the 1570s the Church of Scotland was adopting an increasingly hard line on religious festivals. In particular there was a campaign against…
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)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…
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)The Reformation Parliament of 1560 saw Scotland officially declared a Protestant country. However, it took time to establish the structures of a…
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)
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)In the spring and summer of 1559 Protestant activists set out to ‘reform’ Roman Catholic churches. Influenced by strict Calvinist ideas on the…
John Knox - one of best known Protestant preachers in Reformation Scotland. (Credit: Wikimedia)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…
The title page of Archbishop Hamilton's 'Catechism'. This was the first book ever printed in Fife. (Credit: Internet Archive)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…
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)In 1517 the German academic Martin Luther published a series of criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther’s protest rapidly developed into an…
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)
Crail KilwinningIn 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…
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…
St Columba’s Episcopal Church, AberdourShortly after the Great Disruption in 1843, a Free Church congregation was founded in Aberdour. They opened a church, called St Colme’s, in 1845,…
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…
Aberdour Former Parish Church Interior (before 1926).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…
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…
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…
St Fillan's Church, Aberdour (Source: Richard Fawcett, 2012)The placename Eglismartin (the ‘Church of (St) Martin’) in Easter Aberdour was first recorded in the fourteenth century. Names with the Eglis or…
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…
Portrait of John Glas, the founder of the Glasites. (Credit: National Galleries of Scotland)