St Rule’s Church

St Rule’s Church

The building now known as St Rule’s Church originally served as St Andrews Cathedral. The church was probably built on the orders of Bishop Robert during the early twelfth century, as part of his effort to modernise worship in St Andrews. Indeed, twelfth-century sources note that before Bishop Robert the main church in St Andrews ‘was very small’. Bishop Robert’s building work was not universally popular, and he had some difficulties raising the necessary funds. The resulting church shows the influence of Norman architecture, and it has been suggested that masons from Yorkshire were employed in its construction. St Rule’s has an impressively tall tower, which can be seen some distance out at sea. For much of the Middle Ages there was a choir to the east of the tower (the remains of which can still be seen) and a nave to the west of the tower (which had already been demolished by the late sixteenth century). Yet even with the nave St Rule’s was not an exceptionally large church. It was probably this lack of space which led the canons of St Andrews to begin work on a much bigger Cathedral in the 1160s. St Rule’s was increasingly sidelined, and became known as ‘the old church’. Nevertheless, the seal of St Andrews Cathedral Priory retained an image of St Rule’s Church into the sixteenth century. Following the Reformation St Rule’s ceased to serve a religious purpose. By the 1780s there were concerns about the stability of St Rule’s Tower, and the Barons of the Exchequer gave money for repairs. This is thought to be the earliest example of government funding for heritage conservation in Scotland.

sacredlandscapesoffife

12th Century?

Bess Rhodes

Site

202

05/10/2021

10/08/2023 10:02:37 am

(1) Richard Fawcett, ‘The Medieval Ecclesiastical Architecture of St Andrews as a Channel for the Introduction of New Ideas’, in Michael Brown and Katie Stevenson, eds, Medieval St Andrews: Church, Cult, City (Woodbridge, 2017), pp. 51-54. (2) Simon Taylor and Gilbert Márkus, The Place-Names of Fife (5 vols, Donington, 2006-2012), vol. 3, pp. 610-611. (3) Historic Environment Scotland, ‘St Andrews Cathedral – Statement of Significance’. Available at: https://www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-and-research/publications/publication/?publicationid=610a2475-4ded-4b0c-8388-a7b700d5528e [Accessed 21 May 2021].

cm x cm x cm

current,56.339706411996495,-2.786448865442142;

St Rule’s Church

TEXT

Building

430

1560?

Catholic

St Andrews and St Leonards