St Katherine’s Chapel / Parish Church

St Katherine’s Chapel / Parish Church

For several centuries St Katherine’s Church (which was formerly located on the north side of the High Street) served as Newburgh’s parish church. The church is first recorded in 1470 when it was described as ‘the chapel of St Katherine the Virgin’. At this point the chapel seems to have already been an established place of worship. In 1508 there is a reference to funds being put aside for the ‘new kirk’ which was to be built in the burgh of Newburgh in honour of St Duthac, St Katherine, and St Mary Magdalene. It is thought that this relates to a remodelling and expansion of the original chapel of St Katherine. Unlike many Scottish chapels St Katherine’s survived the Reformation as a place of worship. In the early seventeenth century St Katherine’s became a parish church when Newburgh split from the parish of Abdie. Some restoration work was undertaken on St Katherine’s in the late eighteenth century. In the 1790s the building was described by the parish minister Thomas Stuart as ‘an old Popish chapel... which, in consequence of a late thorough repair, has been made a very convenient place of worship’. Later generations did not agree with this assessment. In 1832 the medieval church was demolished and replaced with a new building designed by the notable Edinburgh architect William Burn. Slightly ironically Burn’s design was in the Gothic revival style. The nineteenth-century St Katherine’s Church was an impressive building, which for many decades dominated the High Street. However, in the 1960s St Katherine’s was demolished and the congregation moved to the current Newburgh Parish Church (which stands more towards the eastern edge of Newburgh). The site is now occupied by a garden and flats known as St Katherine’s Court.

sacredlandscapesoffife

1470

Bess Rhodes

Site

248

24/11/2022

09/26/2023 01:30:19 pm

John Dowden, ed., Chartulary of the Abbey of Lindores (1903). Thomas Stuart, ‘Parish of Newburgh’, in the Old Statistical Account (1793), vol. 8, pp. 170-191. Historic Environment Scotland, Canmore entry for ‘Newburgh, High Street, St Catherine’s Parish Church’: http://canmore.org.uk/site/30076 [Accessed 18 November 2021]. Places of Worship in Scotland, ‘St Katherine’s Chapel’: http://www.scottishchurches.org.uk/sites/site/id/4601/name/St.+Katherine%27s+Chapel+Newburgh+Fife [Accessed 18 November 2021].

cm x cm x cm

current,56.35088142626372,-3.241046312652883;

St Katherine’s Chapel / Parish Church

TEXT

Building

523

1960

Catholic,Church of Scotland

Newburgh