Browse Items (515 total)
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…
Engraving of Queen Anne by J.C. Marchand. Anne was the first ruler of the newly created United Kingdom. (Credit: National Galleries of Scotland)
Employment
Electromagnetic SurveyConducting electromagnetic surveying on the raised beaches at Kingcraig using a Geonics EM38
Early Christian carvings on the Skeith Stone. (Credit: James Allan / Wikimedia)
Dysart, St Serf's Cave (Source: R. Fawcett)
Dysart St Clair Parish Church (Source: Richard Fawcett, 2012)
Dysart Barony Church (Source: Richard Fawcett, 2012)
DysartDysart (/ˈdaɪzərt/ Scottish Gaelic: Dìseart) is a former town and royal burgh located on the south-east coast between Kirkcaldy and West Wemyss in…
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)
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)
Detail of a hunting scene on the St Andrews Sarcophagus. (Credit: University of St Andrews)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 Free 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 Church Exterior (Source Fawcett, 2011)
Culross Abbey Tower (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021)Shortly after the Reformation, the presbytery, transepts choir and tower of the Abbey were converted into the parish church of Culross. This situation…
Culross Abbey (Parish Church), Fife
CulrossCulross (/ˈkurəs/) (Scottish Gaelic: Cuileann Ros, 'holly point or promontory') is a village and former royal burgh, and parish, in Fife, Scotland.
Crail Parish Church in early SeptemberCrail Parish Church in early September. This is a photo of listed building number 23244.
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.)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…
Crail KilwinningThe rock at Crail is largely Carboniferous Sandstone and Shale, but a variety of types of rock have been used to build the village.
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…
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…
CrailCrail Scottish Gaelic: (Cathair Aile) is a former royal burgh, parish and community council area (Royal Burgh of Crail and District) in the East Neuk…
During the mid-nineteenth century a Congregational church was built on the east side of Bell Street. It was substantial Victorian stone building…
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…
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…
Church and War Memorial, North Queensferry
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)In the 1930s the Christian Brethren leased a cottage on Greenside Place. This was subsequently converted into a hall for worship. The Christian…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
Channel, Roome BayChannel cut into Carboniferous sandstones at Roome Bay, Crail
Chalmers Memorial Church c.1890 (Source: Erskine Beveridge Collection)Following the Great Disruption in 1843, the minister of Anstruther Easter, William Ferrie, joined the Free Church, taking around 300 of his…
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…
Cellardyke Rose modelDeformation structure within the Carboniferous sandstones at Cellardyke, Fife
Cellardyke Rose
Cellardyke RoseDeformation feature in Carboniferous sandstones near Cellardyke, Fife
Cellardyke Parish Church (Source: © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd)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…
Bed of fossil tree (Lepidodendron) stumps in Carboniferous sequence near Cellardyke, Fife
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…
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…
Cardinal Gray's coat of arms on a window in St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh. (Credit: Sheila1988 / Wikimedia)
Caiplie CovesThe 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…
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…
The seventh and eighth centuries saw increasing conversion of the Picts (who then inhabited Fife and much of Scotland north of the Forth).…
The earliest evidence for Christianity in Fife comes from Christian symbols on carved stones and in caves. Early examples include the carvings on the…
c.300 – 400 Arrival of Christianity in ScotlandChristianity was introduced to Southern Scotland during the Roman occupation of Britain. It is possible that some Christian communities survived the…
The Reformation Parliament of 1560 saw Scotland officially declared a Protestant country. However, it took time to establish the structures of a…
The fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries saw major building projects at many Fife churches. New churches were built and old ones remodelled. The…
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…
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…
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…
Around 1070 King Malcolm III’s wife Margaret (later known as St Margaret of Scotland) brought a group of Benedictine monks to Dunfermline. The…
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…
In 1517 the German academic Martin Luther published a series of criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther’s protest rapidly developed into an…
Burntisland Parish KirkDating 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…
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)
BurntislandBurntisland (/bɜːrntˈaɪlənd/, Scots: Bruntisland) is a former royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland, on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth.…
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…
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 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…
A walking guide to the stones that St Andrews is built with.
Building Stones of St AndrewsA guide to the stones used to build St Andrews.
Building Stones of Crail
Buckhaven Salvation Army (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021)
Buckhaven Parish Church (formerly St Davids) (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021)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…
Buckhaven Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007)
Buckhaven Church of God (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007).
Buckhaven Church of God (Bess Rhodes, 2021)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…
The Buckhaven Christian Fellowship moved into the building on Institution Street in 1969. It had formerly been a United Free Church constructed in…
Buckhaven Baptist Church (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021)
Buckhaven Baptist Church (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007)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,…
Buckhaven and Wemyss Parish Church (Source: Presbytery of Kirkcaldy, 2021)
Bruce of Culross and Carnock Monument (Source: Bess Rhodes)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…
Bishop John Strain - the first Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh after the Roman Catholic hierarchy was reintroduced to Scotland. (Credit: Wikimedia)
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)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…
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…
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…
In 1808 a Baptist chapel was founded in Newburgh. The congregation was established by Archibald McLean, who was leading figure in the Scotch Baptists…
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…