St Mary’s On The Rock

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.

sacredlandscapesoffife

Bess Rhodes

Site

199

05/10/2021

(1) Jonathan Wordsworth and Peter R. Clark, ‘Kirkhill’, in M.J. Rains and D.W. Hall, eds, Excavations in St Andrews: 1980-89 (Glenrothes, 1997), pp. 7-18. (2) Bess Rhodes, Riches and Reform: Ecclesiastical Wealth in St Andrews, c.1520-1580 (Leiden, 2019), pp. 178-179. (3) David Hay Fleming, ed., Register of the Minister, Elders and Deacons of the Christian Congregation of St Andrews, 1559-1600 (2 vols, Edinburgh, 1889-1890), pp. 76-77, 135-138. (4) Historic Environment Scotland, Canmore entry for ‘St Andrews, Kirk Hill, St Mary’s Church’: https://canmore.org.uk/site/34358/st-andrews-kirk-hill-st-marys-church.

cm x cm x cm

current,56.339800114731084,-2.7850776276608196;

St Mary’s On The Rock

TEXT

Building

424

1

Catholic