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Methil (Scottish Gaelic: Meadhchill)[2] is an eastern coastal town in Scotland. It was first recorded as "Methkil" in 1207, and belonged to the Bishop of St Andrews. Two Bronze Age cemeteries have been discovered which date the settlement as over…

The Memorial Fountain was built in 1897 and is dedicated to Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. It is built of both grey and red granite.

In 1855 Robert Robertson, a local linen merchant, purchased a former inn and converted it into a Meeting House for the villagers of North Queensferry. The name evolved from Meeting House, to Preaching Station and eventually the Mission Hall. It…

The first version of Martyrs’ Church was built in the 1840s by a Free Church congregation (one of the groups that broke away from the Church of Scotland in the mid-nineteenth century). The congregation rapidly expanded, and in 1851 the building was…

The hill known as Mares Craig was for many years a stone quarry. In the 1920s a Celtic handbell, of the type associated with early medieval religious foundations, was discovered here, along with a considerable number of dressed stones and lime…

The building now occupied by Newburgh Flooring is widely believed to have once been a church. In reality for much of its history it appears to have functioned as a church hall. In 1885 John Livingstone paid for the construction of a stone hall for…

Lindores Abbey was founded in the late twelfth century by David, Earl of Huntingdon. The earl had recently fought in the Third Crusade and established the abbey to give thanks to God for his safe return to Scotland. Lindores was a Tironesian…

The first written records for Leuchars Parish Church date from the 1180s. However, there may have been Christian activity here at an earlier date. The eastern end of the church has a remarkably fine Romanesque apse and chancel, with elaborate…

A Free Church congregation was established in Leuchars in the 1840s, in the immediate aftermath of the Great Disruption. During the 1890s the church was substantially rebuilt. In 1900 the congregation joined the United Free Church. Following the…

Leuchars (pronounced /ˈluːxərs/ (About this soundlisten) or /ˈluːkərz/; Scottish Gaelic: Luachar "rushes") is a small town and parish near the north-east coast of Fife in Scotland. The civil parish has a population of 5,754 (in 2011) [1] and an area…

Kirk, Anstruther Wester This fine old Kirk is now rather dilapidated and shored up in places. I suppose it's not in bad shape for something that has stood here for 764 years to date, well parts of it anyway, much of it was changed in a major…

360 photosphere on the 4m raised beach to east of Kinkell Braes

Kingsbarns Parish Church, 2023.

Geological field guide to Kingsbarns Beach.

Kingsbarns has a variety of different fossils including 330 million year old millipede tracks. There are also fossilised shells and the imprints of ancient roots of trees called Lepidodendron which grew in Fife during the Carboniferous era.

A walking trail to see the Geology between Kinghorn and Kirkcaldy.

This area between Kinghorn and Kirkcaldy has some pillow basalts as well as fossilised corals and crinoids.

Jehovah’s Witnesses were first established in Buckhaven in 1971, moving into a building constructed c.1900 and previously occupied by a group known as the Church of Christ. The building underwent significant renovation in 1980, and is still in…

Kincraig Point raised beach platforms

Tim Kinnaird OSL sampling

Kincaple East raised beaches

There has been Christian activity at Kilrenny since Pictish times, and it is likely that there was an early medieval church on or near the site of the present day parish church. In the 1160s patronage of the church at Kilrenny was granted to Dryburgh…

On the coast a little way north of the burgh of Crail (near Crail Airfield) is land known as Kilminning. This name is thought to derive from the Gaelic for ‘Church of Monan’. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries human bones were often…

Inverkeithing Friary, Queen Street, Inverkeithing, Fife, Scotland

Inverkeithing (/ˌɪnvərˈkiːðɪŋ/ Scottish Gaelic: Inbhir Chèitinn) is a port town and parish, in Fife, Scotland, on the Firth of Forth. According to 2016 population estimates, the town has a population of 4,890, while the civil parish was reported to…

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the bishops of St Andrews had a residence at Inchmurdo. This has been tentatively identified as being located near the dovecote at Lower Kenly. In the 1980s some remains possibly associated with the…

The old doocot at Kenly. The bishop’s palace may have been nearby. Photo by Hamish Brown. (H. Brown / University of St Andrews)

Hope Park was built in the 1860s for the United Presbyterians, who had previously been worshipping in a house on North Street. The church was designed by the architects Peddie and Kinnear. The new church was originally towards the western edge of St…

Since the early fifteenth century Holy Trinity Church has been located on South Street. The current site was given by Sir William Lindsay of the Byres for the citizens of St Andrews to build ‘a church in honour of the Holy Trinity with a row of…

The parish of Holy Trinity is first recorded in the 1140s, when Bishop Robert was reorganising religious life in St Andrews. For centuries Holy Trinity was the main church for the residents of St Andrews. The church was originally located within the…

A guide to the different types of stone used to build Holy Trinity Church.

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

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…

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…

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.…

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…

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…

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

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.

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…

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…

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…

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 –…

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…

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

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…

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…

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 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’…

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…

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…

Aerial view of the esker at St Fort

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…

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…