St Anna’s Chapel, St Andrews

St Anna’s Chapel, St Andrews

During the late Middle Ages a chapel dedicated to St Anna (the grandmother of Jesus) stood on the north side of North Street. St Anna’s Chapel was probably a chantry – an institution where one or more priests regularly prayed for the souls of the dead. Chantries, or chaplainries as they were traditionally termed in Scotland, were often part of a larger church, but could be a separate building like St Anna’s. In the early sixteenth century church courts sometimes met in St Anna’s Chapel. Early property records indicate that near the chapel there was area known as ‘St Anna’s Yard’. Shortly after the Reformation the chapel and its revenues were transferred to St Andrews burgh council. By the late 1560s the site of St Anna’s was held by Robert Pont, a leading figure in the Reformed Church of Scotland. The area where the chapel once stood is now covered by the University of St Andrews’ College Gate building.

sacredlandscapesoffife

1510?

Bess Rhodes

Site

75

21/05/2021

10/08/2023 09:33:59 am

(1) W.E.K. Rankin, The Parish Church of the Holy Trinity St Andrews: Pre-Reformation (Edinburgh, 1955), pp. 50, 69, 114. (2) University of St Andrews Library, B65/1/1, ff. 39v-50v. (3) University of St Andrews Library, B65/23/352.

cm x cm x cm

current,56.34121634603222,-2.7933796499019086;

St Anna’s Chapel, St Andrews

TEXT

Building

154

1560

Catholic

St Andrews and St Leonards