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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 late twelfth or thirteenth centuries. It was a key station on probably the most important and well used…

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 commonly known, was believed to have been born in Culross. According to the Vita St Kentigerni (composed in…

Joan Blaeu’s map of Fife with detail of Naughton or ‘Nachton’

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 later became the parish church, the source notes that it was located outside of the burgh, so it is…

Current use: residential.

In the 1930s the Christian Brethren leased a cottage on Greenside Place. This was subsequently converted into a hall for worship. The Christian Brethren used the hall until the early twentieth century. The property was then sold, and the building…

St Monans Parish Church Hall, 2023. (B. Rhodes)

During the early 2020s the Church of Scotland congregation at St Monans made the decision to worship at their church hall, rather than using the harder to access medieval church building. As of 2024, the church hall on Station Road is the main Church…

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 or Erat’s, after which nearby Heriot Street is also named, can be found close to the site of the…

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 street and there appears to have been a gallery above the doorways. During the early nineteenth…

During the mid-nineteenth century a Congregational church was built on the east side of Bell Street. It was substantial Victorian stone building designed by the architects Andrew Kerr and Jesse Hall. The church closed in the 1960s, and was demolished…

During the twelfth century there was a parish church at Coultra. However, this appears to have been abandoned in the thirteenth century when the congregation moved to Balmerino – where they probably worshiped in the nave of the newly founded…

Crail Scottish Gaelic: (Cathair Aile) is a former royal burgh, parish and community council area (Royal Burgh of Crail and District) in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland.

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 World War Crail was once more brought into military use and expanded to become an important base for…

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 Ruffinus – which is thought to be a Latinised form of St Maolrubha (an early medieval saint who was…

The rock at Crail is largely Carboniferous Sandstone and Shale, but a variety of types of rock have been used to build the village.

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 from the parish of Crail were given to the Cistercian nunnery at Haddington. The nuns at Haddington…

Crail Parish Church in early September. This is a photo of listed building number 23244.

Creich and Flisk Free Church was founded in the 1840s. The congregation was established by Dr Taylor, who had formerly been minister of Flisk Parish Church, but left the Church of Scotland during the Great Disruption of 1843. Following the union of…

It has been suggested that there was a Culdee chapel at Balchrystie. The Old Statistical Account (compiled in the 1790s), claims that there were Culdees here in the time of Malcolm Canmore (r. 1058-1093). During the mid-eighteenth century the…

Culross (/ˈkurəs/) (Scottish Gaelic: Cuileann Ros, 'holly point or promontory') is a village and former royal burgh, and parish, in Fife, Scotland.

Shortly after the Reformation, the presbytery, transepts choir and tower of the Abbey were converted into the parish church of Culross. This situation was formerly recognised by an Act of Parliament in 1633. In 1642 the church received a significant…

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 Causeway in the west of the town. A renewal of mining operations in the area around Culross in the…

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 at the newly founded abbey in Culross. Most of the structure was built in the twelfth or thirteenth…

The chapel at Drumoig Vicarsford Cemetery is a remarkably fine Victorian Gothic structure, inspired by the design of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. It was built in the late nineteenth century as a memorial to Lady Leng and is non-denominational. The…

Today all that is visible of Dunbog’s old parish church is a small abandoned graveyard near Dunbog House. There was a church on this site from at least the twelfth century through to the beginning of the nineteenth century. For much of the Middle…

Dunbog Parish Church was constructed around 1803. It had seating for 200 people, and in the 1840s had on average about 135 communicants. At this time the minister of Dunbog described the church as being ‘in excellent repair’. Similarly the early…

Dysart (/ˈdaɪzərt/ Scottish Gaelic: Dìseart) is a former town and royal burgh located on the south-east coast between Kirkcaldy and West Wemyss in Fife. The town is now considered to be a suburb of Kirkcaldy. Dysart was once part of a wider estate…

There appears to be the remains of a chapel in the southern section of Flisk Wood. Its origins are uncertain. James Gordon of Rothiemay’s 1642 map of Fife appears to show two churches at Flisk. The western one is labelled ‘Flisk Kirk’ and appears to…

Conducting electromagnetic surveying on the raised beaches at Kingcraig using a Geonics EM38

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 Crail, Alexander Leslie, was among those who opposed the re-establishment of Presbyterian government…

In 1818 applied to join the In 1820 the Burgher Presbytery of Perth granted a group called the Managers of the Associate Society of Anstruther £20 to construct a church in the Backdykes area of Anstruther Easter. They had between 40 and 50 members…

Aerial view of the esker at St Fort

The Congregationalist Church in Anstruther was formed in around 1800, following preaching in the town by James Haldane and Joseph Rate in 1798. They met initially at 28 East Green, a weaver's shop owned by a Mr Thaw, known locally as the Tabernacle…

Ferryport-on-Craig is the old name for Tayport – the name changed in the nineteenth century under influence from the railways. During the Middle Ages Ferryport-on-Craig was probably part of the parish of Leuchars. In 1606 James VI and I authorised…

There seems to have been a parish church at Flisk as early as the 1170s. The medieval parish church survived into the late eighteenth century, before eventually being demolished and replaced by a new building constructed ‘near the site of the former’…

Shortly after the start of World War II a small chapel was built in Methil Docks to cater to the dock personnel and those involved in war production at the site. The chapel was demolished at the end of the war and its exact location is unknown.

There is a church recorded at Forgan in the twelfth century. The old parish church at Forgan was appropriated to St Andrews Cathedral Priory for much of the Middle Ages. The church survived the Reformation, and for part of the 1560s had a canon of St…

In the 1840s the minister of Forgan, Charles Nairn, supported the construction of a new parish church, located on the main road between Leuchars and Newport. The move was made partly in order to bring the church closer to the main centres of…

Forgan Parish Church and its location near the road and the local smithy. Ordnance Survey Map of Fife, 1855

Since 1993 Quaker meetings have been held in a Victorian house on Howard Place. The Society of Friends occupy the lower two storeys of the house, with meetings taking place in a simply furnished room on the ground floor. There has been a group of…

A Free Church congregation was established at Gauldry in the 1840s. The site of the church is clearly marked on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey (published in 1855). Supposedly, the church building was converted from an old weaver’s shop –…

As a result of the large numbers of German sailors visiting Methil annually in the late nineteenth century a missionary from the German Church in Edinburgh (located in Leith) began to make periodical visits to the town. In 1898 the heads of that…

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 the Methil Town Mission. The Gospel Hall was found on Wellesley Road. It is unclear when it fell…

The Gospel Hall is in a former shop on the narrow section of Market Street. Christian Brethren (traditionally sometimes called Plymouth Brethren) have worshipped here since at least 1914. During the early twentieth century the Plymouth Brethren had a…

Gospel Hall in St Monans was built in the 1950s. However, the evangelical congregation that worship at Gospel Hall have had a presence in St Monans since the 1920s. As of 2024 it remains a place of worship.

Gospel Hall, St Monans, 2023. (B. Rhodes)

During the late Middle Ages an Observant Franciscan friary was located on a large plot of land between Market Street and North Street (where Greyfriars Garden now stands). The friary was founded by Bishop Kennedy in the mid-fifteenth century. The…

A Franciscan Friary was founded in Inverkeithing in the fourteenth century. The Greyfriars, as they were known from the colour of their cowls, were a significant presence in the burgh, with their buildings and gardens stretching from Queen Street…

For much of the nineteenth century there was no church in Guardbridge. However, in the 1880s the United Presbyterians established a church on the main road through the village, and the church is clearly marked on the 1896 Ordnance Survey Map of Fife.…

The area now called Hallow Hill was once known as Eglesnamin. This name also has religious associations, with 'egles' appearing to be a Pictish word for a church. Hallow Hill may in fact be one of the oldest religious sites in St Andrews. There was…

The site now occupied by Holy Trinity Church has been a place of worship for several different denominations. A church was built here in the 1790s for Crail’s Burgher congregation. In 1847 the congregation became part of the newly created United…

Holy Trinity Church features many interesting types of stone, including a beautiful alabaster and marble pulpit.