Castle Chapel, St Andrews

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.

sacredlandscapesoffife

Bess Rhodes

Site

60

21/05/2021

05/21/2021 03:04:18 pm

(1) Richard Fawcett, ‘The Medieval Ecclesiastical Architecture of St Andrews as a Channel for the Introduction of New Ideas’, in Michael Brown and Katie Stevenson, eds, Medieval St Andrews: Church, Cult, City (Woodbridge, 2017), p. 79. (2) Robert Kerr Hannay, ed., Rentale Sancti Andree: Being the Chamberlain and Granitar Accounts of the Archbishopric in the Time of Cardinal Beaton (Edinburgh, 1913), p. 224. (3) University of St Andrews Library, UYSS150/2, ff. 49v-51v. (4) Historic Environment Scotland, Statement of Significance: St Andrews Castle (Edinburgh, 2011). Available at: https://www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-and-research/publications/publication/?publicationId=2bf4539f-2da4-49d4-945a-a57000dae117 [Accessed 6 May 2021].

cm x cm x cm

current,56.341922913125444,-2.789897023321828;

Castle Chapel, St Andrews

TEXT

Building

139

Catholic