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. One of these was the Spiritualist Church, located on Methil Brae. It was closed by the 1970s the building was sold. It was demolished soon after and is now the site of a private house.
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.
Methil Evangelical Church (Source; Bess Rhodes)
In 1931, some 300 years after the closure of the parish church in Methilhill, a new Church of Scotland parish church was constructed on Chemiss Road, close to the site of the medieval church. As with the new Methil Parish Church on Wellesley Road, the opening of the new church was necessitated by the growing population of Methil, in particular the mining districts inland from the port. Originally known as Methilhill Parish Church, it was constructed in 1931 in a style described by Gifford as Cheap gothic. As hall was added in the 1960s and there was a major repair in 2007, by which time, following a union with the Denbeath Parish Church, it had been renamed Methil and Denbeath Parish Church. It remains in use today.
Methil and Denbeath Parish Church (Source: Bess Rhodes)
In the early 1920s the steady growth of the population of the town led the Church of Scotland to construct a new parish church in Methil to replace the West Church (1838). Land on Wellesley Road was gifted by the Wemyss family and the commission was given to Reginald Fairlie, who was also responsible for St Agatha’s Roman Catholic Church completed in 1923. Fairlie was influenced by medieval church architecture, and reputedly used the plans of the medieval parish church of Methilhill (excavated in the early 1920s) in his designs for both St Agatha’s and Methil Parish Church on Wellesley Road, although this influence is perhaps more obvious in the latter. The design includes nave, transepts and a choir separated from the body of the church by an organ screen and a cloister and chapter house. In 2012 there was a union between the church and that of Innerleven East, and since the merger it is now known as Wellesley Parish Church of Scotland.
Wellesley Parish Church, Methil (Source: Bess Rhodes)
St Agatha’s Roman Catholic Church, Methil
Nearly four centuries after the Protestant Reformation, a Roman Catholic congregation returned to Methil with the opening of a church in 1903. Located on Methil Brae and called St Agatha’s, the congregation had expanded to such an extent that in the early 1920s the decision was taken to build a new church on a site nearby. Designed by Reginald Fairlie, who was also responsible for Methil Parish Church (1924-25), the foundation stone was laid by Bishop Graham Grey of Edinburgh, and it was opened in 1923. Old St Agatha’s was demolished and the site is now home to a nursery. Inside can be found some distinctive stained glass by the artist John Blyth, including the Lady Chapel with Holy Family and Nativity scenes, triptych style scenes in the north west transept depicting Mary with Jesus flanked by angels, and saints. The nave has images of saints Ninian, Patrick, Columba, Mungo, Cuthbert, Magnus, David, John Ogilvie, Andrew, Agatha and Margaret, and Peter appearing to St Agatha. A hall was added to the church in the 1960s and it remains and active church.
St Agatha’s Roman Catholic Church, Methil (Source: Bess Rhodes)
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 church decided to send a permanent missionary and they opened a church on Durie Street in 1900. The mission was suspended during World War I, and in the 1920s and 1930s the pastor was Gunner Belflage, a Swedish masseur who also opened a tea garden in Lundin Links. The mission was permanently closed at the outbreak of World War II, and is now a private house.
German Seaman’s Mission (Source: Vintage Lundin Links and Largo).
Following the Great Disruption in 1843, a quod sacra Free Church parish was set up in Methil, before a full mission was established in 1852. The mission initially met at the Salt Girnel, before in 1882 a full congregation was formed in Methil, and in 1890 a new church was constructed at the corner of Fisher Street and High Street at a cost of £700. In 1929 the congregation re-joined the Church of Scotland, changing its name to Methil East in the process. In 1942 there was a union between Methil East and the newly constructed Innerleven East Parish Church, and the congregation moved to the new church. The former Free Church was used as a workshop by a local taxi firm for some time, before it was demolished in 1978. No trace now remains.
The Scottish Coastal Mission, founded in 1850, was a Protestant organisation dedicated to ministering to sailors and maritime communities. By 1861 they employed 10 missionaries and had 29 stations along the east coast of Scotland. They began services in Methil in 1892, and opened the building known as the ‘Seaman's Bethel’ on Dock Street in 1904 at a cost of £8000. It was still active in 1952, but has since closed and been demolished.
Scottish Coast Mission (Source: Places of Worship in Scotland)
From the early 1600s to 1838 Methil was part of the parish of Wemyss and the congregation attended the church in Easter Wemyss. Following an increase in the population in the early nineteenth century, a church was built in the High Street with room for 800 and at a cost of £1030. Following the Great Disruption of 1843, the church appears to have been shut, but was operational again by 1876. When a larger parish church was built in Methil in 1922-24 (now known as Wellesley Parish Church of Scotland) the West Church fell out of use. For some years it was used as a practice hall for the Wellesley Colliery band, and later as a storehouse until it was finally demolished in 1981.
The church of the medieval parish of Methil (spelt Methilkil or Methilhill) was located inland, on the banks of the River Leven about a mile and a half from its mouth. It is first recorded in 1207 and 1218. The archbishops of St Andrews gifted the patronage of the church of Methil to the Wemyss family in 1571, and the parish itself was annexed to Wemyss sometime between 1614 and 1638. The church was abandoned at this point, but some remains could still be seen as late as 1838, and an excavation in the 1920s found the foundations of a large structure. The graveyard remained in use even after the church was abandoned, and contains headstones from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Methil Hill Cemetery (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021)
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 dug up here. Following the discovery of further human remains in the 1960s, archaeological investigation was undertaken which revealed a long-cist cemetery and a rectangular stone building – possibly the remains of a chapel. The combination of the place name, burials, and foundations strongly suggest that Kilminning was an early medieval religious site.
The coast at Kilminning. Remains of what may have been an early chapel have been discovered in this area. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews.)
Towards the end of the 1840s the Free Church congregation in Crail built a church on the road then known as Jockeys Port (now called St Andrews Road). The original Victorian building was demolished near the beginning of the twentieth century, and replaced with an imposing Gothic revival building designed by James Davidson Cairns. The new building was influenced by both Scottish and English architectural traditions. In 1929 the Free Church rejoined the Church of Scotland. This meant there was more than one Church of Scotland congregation in Crail, and the former Free Church became known as St David’s. The building continued as a place of worship until the 1950s when it was converted into a church hall. It is now owned by Crail Community Partnership and is run as an event space for the local area under the name Crail Community Hall.
The west gable of Crail Community Hall – formerly St David’s Church. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews.)
The early nineteenth century saw major divisions in the Church of Scotland over secular interference in religious affairs. In the 1840s a large number of relatively evangelical ministers broke away from the established church and founded the Free Church of Scotland. There was considerable support for the Free Church in Fife, including in Crail. Between 1843 and 1845 the Free Church congregation worshipped in a hall on Rose Wynd. They then moved to a church where Crail Community Hall now stands.
Houses on Rose Wynd in 2021. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews.)
The site of the supposed ‘nunnery’ on Nethergate – perhaps in reality a medieval chapel. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews.)
‘The Nunnery’ / Chapel Site on Nethergate
A plot of land on the south side of the Nethergate in Crail has long been known as ‘The Nunnery’. However, written records suggest that there was at no point a convent of nuns in Crail. The name is perhaps derived from an association with the nuns at Haddington Priory (who owned property in Crail and had for many years the patronage of the parish church). It is possible that there was in the Middle Ages a small chapel on this site. In the nineteenth century human remains were discovered in this area during work to level the road surface. Along the boundary of the property there is an old wall which has been tentatively dated to the sixteenth century. A stone with what appears to be a medieval consecration cross could be seen in this wall in the late twentieth century.
The site of the supposed ‘nunnery’ on Nethergate – perhaps in reality a medieval chapel. (Source: 1855 Ordnance Survey Map of Fife, sheet 20. Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/74426837)
‘Prior Walls’ / Chapel Site by the Sea
By the late eighteenth century there was a tradition in Crail that there had once been a medieval priory by the sea, a little to the south of what is now called Prior’s Croft. In reality the name probably arises from the land being owned by the nuns at Haddington Priory. However, there may have been a small chapel in this area in the Middle Ages. In the 1790s it was noted that there stood by the sea ‘a ruin evidently of great antiquity, the east gable of which is still standing’. This ruin bore ‘the name of the prior walls’. The gable (which according to a nineteenth-century writer had ‘Gothic windows’) was washed away by the sea during storms in about 1801. Some foundations remained visible into the 1860s, but by the twentieth century they too had been lost to coastal erosion.
The site of the supposed ‘priory’ ruins. (Source: 1895 Ordnance Survey Map of Fife and Kinross, sheet XXIII. Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/75533145)
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 Presbyterian Church. A few years later, at the end of the 1850s, the original Burgher church was demolished and replaced by the current building. The complex history of the divisions and unions within Scottish Presbyterianism meant that in 1900 the congregation then became part of the United Free Church, and the building became known as Crail West United Free Church. During the Second World War the Roman Catholic Church purchased the site – a project which was undertaken partly because of the significant number of Polish servicemen then stationed at Crail Airfield. It is today known as Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church and remains a place of worship.
Holy Trinity Church in 2021. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews.)
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 and worship. Leslie was removed from his position as minister at Crail parish church and instead set up a small Episcopal congregation. This new congregation built a chapel at Bankhead Brae, overlooking Crail Harbour. The Episcopal community was relatively sympathetic to the Jacobite cause, and when Crail was occupied by Jacobite forces during the winter of 1715 to 1716 they briefly held what the kirk session disapprovingly called ‘the English service’ in the parish church. The associations between Episcopalianism and Jacobitism would prove the undoing of the chapel at Bankhead. In 1745, during the turmoil of another Jacobite rising, supporters of Presbyterianism attacked the Bankhead Brae Episcopal chapel and tore it down.
Bankhead Brae in Crail. An Episcopal chapel was located in this area during the early eighteenth century. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews.)
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 retained significant rights concerning Crail into the sixteenth century. Around 1517 Crail became a collegiate church – in other words it was served by a largely self-governing community of priests. Before the Reformation Crail parish church was lavishly furnished with statues, satin altar hangings, silver and gold crosses, and collections of religious books – all recorded in a surviving inventory. Meanwhile a famous cross known as the Rood of Crail was the focus of pilgrimage. Most of these items were destroyed in the summer of 1559 when John Knox and other Protestant activists descended on Crail. From this point onwards the parish church became the scene of Protestant worship. However, the religious changes were not embraced by everyone. In the 1560s John Melville, the new Protestant minister of Crail, faced considerable disruption to services in the parish church, with members of the congregation threatening to drag him from the pulpit by his ears. Religious controversy continued in Crail throughout the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, although disagreements became increasingly focused on which type of Protestantism should be adopted. In 1648 James Sharp was appointed minister of Crail – he would go on to become archbishop of St Andrews before being murdered by religious opponents. By the early 1800s much of the parish church was in poor repair and the east end had largely fallen out of use. Major rebuilding work took place in the nineteenth century, and further alterations were undertaken in the 1960s. However, significant sections of the medieval church survive, with parts of the tower probably dating from around 1200.
Crail Parish Church in 2021. Marks from the changing rooflines of the church over the centuries can be seen on the tower and end wall of the nave. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews.)
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 popular in north-west Scotland). There are a number of references to the chapel at Crail Castle in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, including in 1512 when a rent from Drumrack was being used ‘to support divine service in the chapel of St Maolrubha in the castle of Crail’. By the time of the Reformation the castle had fallen into disrepair and in 1563 David Spens of Wormistoun obtained permission to rebuild it. The castle chapel is briefly mentioned in 1620 but then slips out of the written record. By the early eighteenth century Crail Castle was itself in ruins. Today a small section of masonry in Castle Garden is all that remains of this former residence and fortification.
A section of old masonry which perhaps formed part of Crail Castle. (Source: William Jack / University of St Andrews Library, WMJ-EN-115-2.)
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 aircraft from the Royal Navy. Both men and women served at Crail Airfield and a chapel was built for these service personnel. The chapel had a stained glass window paid for by Wrens and sailors based at Crail in memory of their comrades who lost their lives in World War Two. Following the war the Royal Navy removed most of its aircraft from Crail, but the site continued to be used for military training until 1960. Much of the brick structure of the chapel still survives, although the building is now derelict.
A naval inspection at Crail Airfield in the early 1940s. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, GMC-5-16-17.)
United Secession Church, 52 North Street
The United Secession Church had its origins in the splits within the Church of Scotland in the eighteenth century. The congregation worshipped for some years in the two burgher churches on South Street, but in the 1820s moved to what is now 52 North Street. This remained a place of worship until the 1860s when the congregation relocated to Hope Park Church.
The former United Secession Church on North Street. (Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)
St Salvator’s College was established in the 1450s by Bishop James Kennedy. The new university college was dedicated to Christ the Saviour, and was intended to resist heresy and increase understanding of ‘divine wisdom’. Kennedy wished to create a college along the lines of those at Oxford and Cambridge, and to this end constructed a large complex of buildings including a dining hall and cloister. Kennedy’s foundation was both a religious and an educational institution. During the Middle Ages worship in the college chapel lay at the heart of life at St Salvator’s. In those days the chapel was lavishly furnished with statues (including a large silver image of Christ the Saviour), paintings, and altar hangings of cloth of gold. Few of these treasures survived the religious upheavals of the sixteenth century. In the summer of 1559 academics were forced to watch as religious images were burned by Protestant activists determined to purge St Andrews of ‘idols’. St Salvator’s ceased being a place of worship at this time, and in 1564 was described as ‘a void house’. However, in the eighteenth-century St Salvator’s once more became a place of worship as the congregation of the parish church of St Leonard relocated here. In 1904, after a legal dispute, the university authorities removed the parishioners of St Leonard’s and took over the running of the chapel. St Salvator’s remains the focus of the main religious services of the University of St Andrews to this day.
St Salvator’s Chapel in about 1767. Some of the original windows have been partly blocked up, others are covered with shutters. The medieval stone roof can still be seen. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, OLI-11.)
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.
Seal of St Andrews Cathedral Priory showing St Rule’s Church. The now demolished nave and west frontage can be seen on the left side of the seal. (Source: University of St Andrews Library)
We do not know exactly when St Peter’s Chapel was founded. However, in 1212 there was a reference to ‘two houses by the sea beside the chapel of St Peter’ in a legal dispute between the archdeacon and cathedral of St Andrews. A later document from about 1250 mentions ‘the chapel of St Peter on the road which goes to the castle’. During the nineteenth century a large amount of stone, including some medieval pillar fragments, and several stone coffins (buried facing east) were found in a garden on the north side of North Street. These have been tentatively identified as relating to St Peter’s Chapel. We do not know the fate of St Peter’s Chapel, but it does not seem to be mentioned in sixteenth-century documents from St Andrews.
The coastline of St Andrews from the air. St Peter’s Chapel may have stood in the area a little to the right of centre of this image. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews))
The hospital of St Nicholas was founded as a refuge for lepers in the twelfth century. Because of fears of infection it stood a little to the south of the main built-up area of St Andrews, near the East Sands. As the prevalence of leprosy declined in the late Middle Ages the hospital became a more general shelter for the poor and sick. During the early sixteenth century the hospital was owned by St Andrews’ Dominican friars (who were based on South Street). Shortly after the Reformation St Nicholas Hospital (and its lands and revenues) were transferred to the St Andrews burgh council, with the intention they would continue to fund the care of the poor and sick. Poor residents of St Andrews still seem to have been living at St Nicholas in the late sixteenth century. At a subsequent (unknown) date St Nicholas stopped serving as a hospital and became an ordinary farm. The foundations of the medieval hospital were discovered by archaeologists in the late twentieth century during the building of the East Sands Leisure Centre. Excavations at this time also uncovered prehistoric human remains, the oldest of which were carbon dated to between 1530-1310 B.C., implying that there was an early cemetery in this area.
The former St Nicholas Hospital in the late seventeenth century. (Source: John Slezer, ‘The Prospect of the Town of St Andrews’, Theatrum Scotiae (1693). Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/91169135)
The ruins of the medieval church of St Mary’s on the Rock (also called St Mary’s Kirkhill) stand on the cliffs looking out over the North Sea. This headland has been a place of importance since prehistoric times, and several Iron Age graves have been found in the area. More than three hundred early Christian burials have also been excavated near St Mary’s – suggesting that this was one of the oldest religious sites in St Andrews. By the twelfth century there was a Culdee church here. This then became a community of priests known as the College of St Mary on the Rock. It is thought that St Mary’s may be the first collegiate church in Scotland. During the late Middle Ages St Mary’s was a royal chapel, though it perhaps lost this status near the beginning of the sixteenth century (following the creation of the Chapel Royal at Stirling). At the Reformation St Mary’s was served by a provost and twelve prebends, a number which echoes Christ and his twelve disciples. When the St Andrews’ authorities adopted Protestantism some of the priests at St Mary’s joined the Reformed Church, but others resisted religious change. The clerics who resisted had property confiscated and faced prosecution. One of the St Mary’s priests who refused to join the Protestant congregation was Thomas Methven. When summoned before the Superintendent of Fife in August 1561 Methven apparently declared that he was ‘neither a Papist nor a Calvinist... but Jesus Christ’s man’. Methven’s comment did not endear him to St Andrews’ religious leaders and he was banished from the burgh. The buildings of St Mary’s on the Rock also suffered an unfortunate fate. The church was attacked in June 1559, and in 1561the college was declared ‘a profane house’. By the late sixteenth century the church had been demolished (although some of the domestic college buildings may still have been standing). The foundations of St Mary’s on the Rock were rediscovered in the nineteenth century and are now cared for by Historic Environment Scotland.
The remains of St Mary’s on the Rock. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)
The site of St Mary’s College on South Street has lengthy associations with religion and learning. In 1419 Robert de Montrose (one of the priests who served at St Mary’s on the Rock) donated a plot of land for ‘a College of Theologians and Artists in honour of Almighty God and especially of the Blessed John the Evangelist’. The first master of the College of St John was Laurence of Lindores – who also served as Inquisitor of Heretical Pravity for Scotland (in other words he was the chief official investigating religious dissent). From an early date St John’s College had its own chapel. Indeed the chapel may have predated the foundation of the College. By the early sixteenth century St John’s had fallen on hard times, and in the 1530s Archbishop James Beaton decided to refound it as a college dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The new St Mary’s College was intended to educate Catholic churchmen to fight heresy. During the 1540s Cardinal David Beaton invested in new buildings for St Mary’s. Masons from the royal palace at Falkland came to work on the college, and a marble altar for the chapel was imported from France. Further work was commissioned by Archbishop John Hamilton in the 1550s. There is some disagreement about whether building work on the chapel had been completed at the time of the Reformation. However, records in the university archives indicate that as early as 1546 St Mary’s College chapel was being used for official ceremonies. The Protestant policy of encouraging members of the university to worship with the residents of the town, probably brought an end to the religious function of the college chapel, and the Geddy map of about 1580 appears to show the building in ruins. Decorative fragments from the pre-Reformation chapel can be seen on the south side of Parliament Hall (which stands on the site of the former chapel). During the late sixteenth-century St Mary’s was reorganised as a Protestant college, and trained ministers for the Reformed Kirk. Today St Mary’s College is still the centre of Divinity teaching and research at the University of St Andrews.
The roofless former chapel of St Mary’s College can be seen in this detail from the Geddy Map of c. 1580. (Source: John Geddy, ‘S. Andrew sive Andreapolis Scotiae Universitas Metropolitana’. NLS, MS.20996. Available at: http://maps.nls.uk/towns/rec/215)
St Mary’s Church, St Mary’s Place
During the early nineteenth century the parish church of Holy Trinity on South Street became too small for the growing population of St Andrews. To address this problem, St Mary’s Church was built on the south side of what became known as St Mary’s Place. The church opened for Church of Scotland worship around 1840, and could seat up to 700 people. The new building was designed by the Edinburgh architect William Burn (who would go on to become a leading proponent of the Scottish baronial style). Following the extension of Holy Trinity in the early twentieth-century St Mary’s was no longer needed as a church and was converted into the Victory Memorial Hall (the name commemorates the ending of the First World War). The front of the building has seen major alterations. Much of the stone is now harled and the windows have been altered. However, the buttresses down each side of the building and the main entrance still reflect its original Victorian design.
The former St Mary’s Church building, now the Victory Memorial Hall. This image shows the hall during the Covid-19 pandemic when it was in use as testing site. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University St Andrews)
Little is known about the medieval chapel of St Mary Magdalene. Sixteenth-century property records indicate that it was located within the cathedral precinct, probably a little way to the south of what we now call St Rule’s Church (then more commonly known as the ‘old church’). According to a document from 1571 ‘the garden of the chapel of St Magdalene with the chapel itself’ stood just to the west of a house and garden held by David Peblis (a former canon at the Cathedral Priory). Both properties seem to have been bounded on the north by ‘the cemetery of the old church’. Several small buildings with gardens can be seen in this area on the late sixteenth-century Geddy Map of St Andrews. It is likely that the chapel stopped serving a religious purpose at the Reformation (so a few years before the description from 1571). The garden of St Magdalene continues to appear in property records during the 1580s. However the name seems to have disappeared by the late seventeenth century. Near the start of the twentieth century the antiquarian David Hay Fleming noted the discovery of stones from a Norman arch and part of the base of an ‘Early English clustered column’ a little south of St Rule’s which he felt ‘may be regarded as indicating the site of St Magdalene’s Chapel’. However efforts in the 1960s to find further remains in this area were not successful.
The line of smaller buildings on the lower right of this image may include the Chapel of St Mary Magdalene. Detail from the Geddy Map of c. 1580. (Source: John Geddy, ‘S. Andrew sive Andreapolis Scotiae Universitas Metropolitana’. NLS, MS.20996. Available at: http://maps.nls.uk/towns/rec/215)
The parish of St Leonard’s has its origins in the Middle Ages. However, the congregation has only worshipped in the current St Leonard’s Church on Hepburn Gardens since the early years of the twentieth century. From 1761 until 1904 the parishioners of St Leonard’s held services in St Salvator’s College Chapel. Their departure from St Salvator’s was surrounded by controversy. In 1898 the University of St Andrews declared a wish for St Salvator’s to be a university chapel and requested the congregation of St Leonard’s to move. Objecting to the change the St Leonard’s congregation took legal proceedings against the university. Eventually it was agreed that land on the outskirts of St Andrews, in what was then known as Rathelpie, should be acquired for St Leonard’s. A new church was built there according to a design by Peter Macgregor Chalmers, and using local sandstone from Nydie. The architecture of St Leonard’s was inspired by the rounded arches and solid appearance of Romanesque buildings. The church has a fine collection of stained glass, much of which was installed in the 1920s and 1930s. Shortly before the Second World War a church hall was built beside the church. Further alterations were made to the church in the 1960s and at the start of the twenty-first century. Today St Leonard’s remains home to an active Church of Scotland congregation.
The newly built St Leonard’s Church in about 1904. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, JV44554.)
St Andrew’s Chapel in about 1865. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, ALB-10-62.)
The former Salvation Army Hall on North Street, now a restaurant known as ‘The Rav’. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)
The Meeting House for the Society of Friends on Howard Place. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)
St John's, Inverkeithing (Source: Bess Rhodes)
Inverkeithing Episcopal Church (Source: Bess Rhodes)
Inverkeithing Baptist Church (Source: Bess Rhodes)
St. Serf's Roman Catholic Church, Culross
St Serf’s Roman Catholic Church was built in 1922 after the opening of new pits at Valleyfield and Blairhall in the early twentieth century saw a large increase in the population of Culross and the surrounding villages. It was located in High Valleyfield and built Reginald Fairlie. It is a simple rectangular building with transepts and a small bellcote which was added at a later date. By 2017 the church had fallen out of use and the parish is no longer included within the list of churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane.
St Serf’s Roman Catholic Church (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007)
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 later nineteenth-century saw the congregation grow, and a manse (1873) and church hall (1883) were built in the town. In 1900 it had a congregation of 113, and, following the union between the Free and United Presbyterian Church in 1901 it became known as Culross United Free Church. In 1929 the congregation re-joined the Church of Scotland and changed its name to St Kentigern’s Church. The congregation united with that Culross Abbey Parish Church in 1943 and the former church in the Low Causeway fell out of use. In 1996 it was converted into private flats and is now known as Cunninghame House.
Culross Free Church (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007).
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 addition when a funerary monument was constructed for George Bruce of Culross and Carnock (died 1625) in the former North Chapel. The church received repairs in the 1820s and 1860s, and a significant restoration by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson in 1903-1906 which included the rebuilding of the south transept and presbytery. In 1943 the congregations of Culross Abbey Parish Church and of St Kentigern’s united and chose to use the Abbey church. More recently, the congregation has united with Torryburn and High Valleyfield to form a single parish, with services alternating between the different sites.
Bruce of Culross and Carnock Monument (Source: Bess Rhodes)
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 the twelfth century), the saint’s pregnant mother (Tenew) was cast adrift in a coracle from Aberlady Bay, eventually washing up on the shore near Culross where she gave birth to Kentigern. He was raised under the mentorship of St Serf, before undertaking a mission in the west where he converted the kingdom of Strathclyde. The chapel was located to the south-east of the abbey, close to the shore. Excavations were carried out there in the 1860s, revealingfour skeletons, and a further dig was carried out again in the 1920s by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. It is now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland.
St Mungo’s Chapel (Source: Ewan Malecki (October 2007).
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 century, with some additions in the later middle ages, including an aisle projecting from mid-point of the south wall. The parishioners of Culross relocated to eastern parts of the former Abbey shortly after the Reformation, although when exactly they ceased to use the West Kirk is unclear. In 1633, when this arrangement was formalised, it was noted that the church had not been used in living memory. It remained in use as a graveyard until the nineteenth century.
Culross Church Exterior (Source Fawcett, 2011)
The Abbey of Culross was founded in 1217 by Maol Choluim I, Earl of Fife (1204–1228), who was himself buried in the church in 1228x1229. Dedicated to St Mary and St Serf, it housed monks of the Cistercian order, a reformed order founded in the late twelfth century at the Burgundian Abbey of Citeaux, from which they take their name. It also housed the relics of St Serf which were visited by pilgrims, including James IV in the early sixteenth century. Most of the current building dates from the 1200s, apart from the large central tower, constructed in the fifteenth century. Shortly after the Reformation, the presbytery, transepts choir and tower of the Abbey were converted into the parish church of Culross, and are still in use today a Culross Abbey Parish Church.
Culross Abbey Tower (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021)
Although Culross only enters the written record in the 1200s, it is clear from archaeological evidence that a community had existed there long before that date. The burgh’s early religious history is associated with St Serf, an important local saint with dedications across Western Fife, Kinross and Clackmannanshire. Culross was the centre of his cult, with relics of the saint housed at the Cistercian Abbey (1217), and presumably the religious building that preceded the abbey. There are a number of conflicting legends surrounding the date of Serf’s life, ranging from the fifth to the eight centuries. Regardless of the accuracy of these various accounts, it is clear that a religious community of some form was located at Culross from at least the eighth century.
Anstruther Wester (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021)
Anstruther Easter Parish Church (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021)
St Fillan's Church, Aberdour (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021)
Hope Street and Howard Place in St Andrews near to the Friends Meeting House. (Source: Jim Bain / Wikimedia)
The former Christian Brethren Hall on Greenside Place. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)
The former burgher kirk on Imrie’s Close. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)
St John's Church in Inverkeithing has its origins in an eighteenth-century burgher congregation. In 1847 the congregation of St John's joined the United Presbyterians. The congregation later became Church of Scotland. (Credit: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)
1719 Limits on Size of Episcopal Congregations
After the Jacobite rising of 1715 the British government became increasingly suspicious of Scottish Episcopalians. Ministers in the Scottish Episcopal Church were required to take an oath renouncing the Stuart claim to the throne and promising to pray for George I. Most Episcopal ministers refused to do this. Episcopalians who did not accept George I were known as ‘non-jurors’ and were banned from conducting services with more than nine attendees. There were several ‘non-juring’ ministers and congregations in Fife. Because of the restrictions non-jurors often worshipped in private houses. In Pittenweem the non-juring Episcopalians met for a time in a barn on the site of the medieval Pittenweem Priory.
Photograph of Pittenweem Priory in the 1940s. One of the priory outbuildings was home to an eighteenth-century Episcopal congregation. (Credit: University of St Andrews)
1715 – 1716 Jacobite Rising (The Fifteen)
The accession of George I to the British throne was soon followed by a rebellion backing James Francis Edward Stuart’s claim to be king instead. James (also known as the Old Pretender) was a Roman Catholic, but he received support from many Scottish Episcopalians who were unhappy about the restoration of Presbyterianism. During the autumn of 1715 Jacobite rebels occupied Dundee and were active in Fife. However, their success was short-lived. In December 1715 government soldiers entered Dunfermline and Burntisland, paving the way to regaining control over the rest of Fife.
An engraving of James Francis Edward Stuart (also known as the Old Pretender). In normal circumstances James would have been king of Scotland and England but legislation was passed banning Roman Catholics from the throne. (Credit: National Galleries of Scotland)
When Presbyterianism was re-established in 1690 the Scottish Parliament also passed legislation banning Christmas. In 1712 this ban was lifted and the British Parliament legalised keeping Christmas in Scotland. However, most Presbyterians remained opposed to any festivities or special services on 25 December.
An English cartoon by William Heath making fun of Christmas festivities in the countryside in about 1800. (Credit: The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London)
1711 The Scottish Episcopalians Act is Passed
The British government was initially more tolerant of Episcopalians than the Scottish Parliament had been. In 1711 the laws against Episcopal marriages and baptisms were removed and new legislation ordered that Episcopalians were not to be disturbed ‘in the exercise of their religious worship’.
The Victorian artist John Philip imagines an eighteenth-century Scottish baptism in a private house. (Credit: Aberdeen Art Gallery)
1711 Changes to Appointments in the Church of Scotland
Lobbying from Scottish aristocrats led to the passing of the Church Patronage Act. This stated that the old patrons of Scottish parishes (typically large landowners) could influence the appointment of Church of Scotland ministers. The move was deeply unpopular with many Presbyterians, and there was significant opposition to the changes in Fife.
Kingsbarns Parish Church in the early twentieth century. During the 1730s Kingsbarns became the scene of a dispute between the congregation and the patron of the parish over the appointment of a new minister. (Credit: University of St Andrews)
After much debate, the parliaments of Scotland and England passed legislation to create a new Kingdom of Great Britain. The Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh closed. Until the twentieth century legislation on Scottish religious affairs became the responsibility of the British Parliament at Westminster.
Engraving of Queen Anne by J.C. Marchand. Anne was the first ruler of the newly created United Kingdom. (Credit: National Galleries of Scotland)
1695 Episcopal Clergy Banned from Performing Marriages or Baptisms
Many of Fife’s Episcopal clergymen were removed from their parishes by the restoration of Presbyterianism. In 1695 the Scottish Parliament passed a law forbidding displaced Episcopal clergy from performing marriages or baptisms under pain of ‘perpetual imprisonment or banishment’.
A late seventeenth-century French engraving of the Scottish Parliament. The different estates which made up the parliament are shown in procession at the bottom of the page and sitting at the top. (Credit: National Galleries of Scotland)
1689 – 1690 Presbyterianism is Restored
In 1689 King James VII was replaced as ruler of Scotland by his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange. Soon afterwards the Scottish Parliament (which had backed William and Mary) passed an act abolishing the authority of bishops. In 1690 Scotland officially became a Presbyterian state. The members of the Church of Scotland who refused to accept these changes formed the beginnings of the Scottish Episcopal Church. There were committed Presbyterians and Episcopalians in Fife, creating long-term religious divisions.
An anonymous engraving of Queen Mary II. With her husband William of Orange, Mary authorised the restoration of Presbyterianism in Scotland. (Credit: National Galleries of Scotland)