Browse Items (515 total)
AnstrutherAnstruther /ˈænstrəðər/ (Locally Ainster /ˈɛnstər/ Scottish Gaelic: Ànsruthair) is a small coastal resort town in Fife, Scotland, situated on the…
Anstruther Baptist Church (2007) (Source: © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd)
Anstruther Church, exterior, from south east (Source: R. Fawcett)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…
Anstruther Easter Parish Church (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021)
Anstruther Easter, St Adrian’s (Source: © Copyright Richard Sutcliffe and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence)
Anstruther Erskine United Free Church (2007) (Source: © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd)
Anstruther Evangelical Church (2007) (Source: © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd)
Anstruther St Nicholas, 1844, Taylor (Source: R. Fawcett)
Anstruther Wester (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021)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…
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…
Arthropleura Tracks
Arthropleura Tracks, St AndrewsArthropleura tracks near St Andrews, a cast of them can be seen in MUSA, the Scores, St Andrews
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.)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…
In 1808 a Baptist chapel was founded in Newburgh. The congregation was established by Archibald McLean, who was leading figure in the Scotch Baptists…
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…
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 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…
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)
Bishop John Strain - the first Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh after the Roman Catholic hierarchy was reintroduced to Scotland. (Credit: Wikimedia)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…
Bruce of Culross and Carnock Monument (Source: Bess Rhodes)
Buckhaven and Wemyss Parish Church (Source: Presbytery of Kirkcaldy, 2021)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 Baptist Church (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007)
Buckhaven Baptist Church (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021)The Buckhaven Christian Fellowship moved into the building on Institution Street in 1969. It had formerly been a United Free Church constructed in…
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…
Buckhaven Church of God (Bess Rhodes, 2021)
Buckhaven Church of God (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007).
Buckhaven Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007)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 Parish Church (formerly St Davids) (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021)
Buckhaven Salvation Army (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021)
Building Stones of Crail
Building Stones of St AndrewsA guide to the stones used to build St Andrews.
A walking guide to the stones that St Andrews is built with.
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…
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…
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…
BurntislandBurntisland (/bɜːrntˈaɪlənd/, Scots: Bruntisland) is a former royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland, on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth.…
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)
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…
In 1517 the German academic Martin Luther published a series of criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther’s protest rapidly developed into an…
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…
Around 1070 King Malcolm III’s wife Margaret (later known as St Margaret of Scotland) brought a group of Benedictine monks to Dunfermline. The…
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…
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…
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 fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries saw major building projects at many Fife churches. New churches were built and old ones remodelled. The…
The Reformation Parliament of 1560 saw Scotland officially declared a Protestant country. However, it took time to establish the structures of a…
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 earliest evidence for Christianity in Fife comes from Christian symbols on carved stones and in caves. Early examples include the carvings on the…
The seventh and eighth centuries saw increasing conversion of the Picts (who then inhabited Fife and much of Scotland north of the Forth).…
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 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…
Caiplie Coves
Cardinal Gray's coat of arms on a window in St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh. (Credit: Sheila1988 / Wikimedia)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…
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…
Bed of fossil tree (Lepidodendron) stumps in Carboniferous sequence near Cellardyke, Fife
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…
Cellardyke Parish Church (Source: © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd)
Cellardyke RoseDeformation feature in Carboniferous sandstones near Cellardyke, Fife
Cellardyke Rose
Cellardyke Rose modelDeformation structure within the Carboniferous sandstones at Cellardyke, Fife
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…
Following the Great Disruption in 1843, the minister of Anstruther Easter, William Ferrie, joined the Free Church, taking around 300 of his…
Chalmers Memorial Church c.1890 (Source: Erskine Beveridge Collection)
Channel, Roome BayChannel cut into Carboniferous sandstones at Roome Bay, Crail
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,…
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…
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 Inverkeithing is first mentioned in the 1150s when it belonged to Abbey of Dunfermline. While it has been suggested that this chapel…
In the 1930s the Christian Brethren leased a cottage on Greenside Place. This was subsequently converted into a hall for worship. The Christian…
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)
Church and War Memorial, North QueensferryLocal 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…
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…
During the mid-nineteenth century a Congregational church was built on the east side of Bell Street. It was substantial Victorian stone building…
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 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…
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…
The rock at Crail is largely Carboniferous Sandstone and Shale, but a variety of types of rock have been used to build the village.
Crail KilwinningThe 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 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.)
Crail Parish Church in early SeptemberCrail Parish Church in early September. This is a photo of listed building number 23244.
Crime
CulrossCulross (/ˈkurəs/) (Scottish Gaelic: Cuileann Ros, 'holly point or promontory') is a village and former royal burgh, and parish, in Fife, Scotland.
Culross Abbey (Parish Church), FifeShortly after the Reformation, the presbytery, transepts choir and tower of the Abbey were converted into the parish church of Culross. This situation…
Culross Abbey Tower (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021)
Culross Church Exterior (Source Fawcett, 2011)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).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…