1528 – 1558 Protestants Burned as Heretics
Between the 1520s and the 1550s the Roman Catholic authorities in Fife severely punished a number of Protestant sympathisers. No less than four Protestants were burned at the stake in St Andrews. The first and most high profile of these was Patrick Hamilton, whose execution in 1528 was so badly mishandled that he took six hours to die. Henry Forrest, George Wishart, and Walter Myln also suffered the death penalty for spreading reformist beliefs.
A wreath and the letters PH marking the site of Patrick Hamilton's execution on North Street in St Andrews. (Credit: Bess Rhodes)
The 1540s saw fighting between Scotland and England. The conflict was partly driven by the English government’s wish to arrange a marriage between Edward VI and the young Mary Queen of Scots (which is why this period is sometimes called the Rough Wooing). However, the war rapidly acquired a religious aspect, as English leaders tried to impose Protestantism on Scotland. Some residents of Fife who supported religious change backed the English. Meanwhile other Scots looked to Roman Catholic France for help. During the conflict the English attacked coastal Fife, including burning Balmerino Abbey.
The young King Edward VI of England. Portrait perhaps by William Scrots. (Credit: The Met / Wikimedia)
1472 St Andrews Becomes an Archbishopric
The bishops of St Andrews had for centuries claimed to be the most important churchmen in Scotland. In 1472 their special status was officially recognised by the pope, when the bishopric of St Andrews was raised into an archbishopric. The new archbishops had authority over the other Scottish dioceses. However, St Andrews’ power was slightly reduced in the 1490s when Glasgow also became an archbishopric and given control over Argyll, Dunblane, Dunkeld and Galloway.
Reconstruction of the chapter house at St Andrews Cathedral in the late Middle Ages. (Credit: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)
1433 Hussite Preacher Burned as a Heretic
In the early 1430s a doctor named Pavel Kravar (sometimes known as Paul Craw in Scotland) was burned for heresy in the centre of St Andrews. Kravar was from Bohemia and had tried to gain support in Fife for the Hussite movement, which then had a significant number of followers in Eastern Europe. The Hussites wanted major changes to religion and society (among other beliefs they supported the redistribution of church property and severe punishments for sinners). This led them to be regarded as heretics by the Roman Catholic authorities. During the early fifteenth century Fife’s religious leaders were concerned about the possibility of heresy spreading from England and Continental Europe and so took swift action against Kravar.
Pavel Kravar was burned at the stake beside the market cross in St Andrews. A saltire in the cobbles on Market Street shows where the cross once stood. (Credit: Bess Rhodes)
In 1349 the Black Death (probably a severe epidemic of bubonic plague) reached Fife. Churchmen were particularly likely to catch the disease as they often tended to the sick and dying. The communal lifestyles of monasteries also proved ideal for spreading infection. At least twenty-four canons at St Andrews Cathedral died of plague (this was at a time when there were about forty canons attached to the cathedral). Following the 1349 outbreak, waves of plague repeatedly swept through Scotland until the middle of the seventeenth century. The constant exposure to sudden death may have encouraged the focus on salvation and the afterlife which characterised late medieval Scottish society.
A fourteenth-century illustration of plague burials in Tournai. Similarly rushed burials probably took place in Fife. (Credit: Pierart dou Tielt / Wikimedia)
1453 – 1456 The Observant Franciscans Arrive in Fife
Like many religious orders, the Franciscans (or grey friars) grew slightly less strict over time. This concerned some people, and led to the establishing of the Observant Franciscan movement. The Observant Franciscans had unusually strict rules on poverty and believed they were following more closely the teachings of St Francis. In the early 1450s an Observant Franciscan friary was founded in St Andrews by Bishop James Kennedy.
The street called Greyfriars Garden now covers where the Observant Franciscan friary once stood in St Andrews. (Credit: Bess Rhodes)
The fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries saw major building projects at many Fife churches. New churches were built and old ones remodelled. The parish churches at St Andrews and Cupar were rebuilt at this time. Late medieval bell towers survive at both these churches, and at Anstruther Wester, Inverkeithing, and Kilrenny. This building boom was made possible by donations from churchmen and lay people anxious to save their souls by giving generously to the church.
Reconstruction showing the possible appearance of the parish church of Holy Trinity in St Andrews, c.1559. (Credit: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)
1410 – 1414 The University of St Andrews is Founded
During the late Middle Ages universities increasingly took over responsiblity for higher education. In 1410 a group of churchmen established a university in St Andrews (which was already an important place of learning with many scholars attached to the Cathedral and other religious sites). The university soon received official backing, and in 1413 Pope Benedict XIII confirmed St Andrews’ status as a university. When the official papal documents arrived in St Andrews the church bells rang out in celebration, and there were religious services, parties, and bonfires. St Andrews was Scotland’s first university. Later in the Middle Ages universities were also founded at Glasgow and Aberdeen.
The ceremonial mace of St Salvator's College (one of the three colleges at the medieval University of St Andrews). The mace was commissioned by Bishop James Kennedy in 1461. (Credit: Sam Taylor / University of St Andrews)
1362 – 1370 David II Rebuilds the Church at St Monans
In the 1360s King David II spent a large amount of money rebuilding the church at St Monans. The king did this because in 1346 he had survived being severely wounded by an arrow in the face at the Battle of Neville’s Cross (where the English defeated the Scots). After going on pilgrimage to St Monans the arrow miraculously removed itself from the king’s head. To give thanks for his healing David II paid to build a much larger church in honour of St Monan.
The medieval church at St Monans built by David II. (Credit: Jim Bain / Wikimedia)
During the thirteenth century some people felt that monasteries had become too wealthy. In response new religious orders of friars were created. The friars were committed to extreme poverty and earned much of their income from begging. Unlike many monks who shut themselves away from society, the friars spent a lot of time out in the world preaching and supporting the poor. The Franciscans (founded by St Francis) and the Dominicans (founded by St Dominic) were two of the largest orders of friars. The Franciscans and Dominicans seem to have arrived in Scotland in the thirteenth century. The first evidence for the friars in Fife comes from the founding of a Dominican friary at Cupar in 1348. Further Dominican houses were established at St Monans and St Andrews. The Franciscans set up communities at Inverkeithing and St Andrews.
Remains of the late medieval church of the Dominican friars in St Andrews. (Credit: Bess Rhodes)
1320 The Declaration of Arbroath Describes St Andrew as Patron Saint of the Scots
The origins of the close connection between St Andrew and the people of Scotland go back into the early Middle Ages. However, during the wars between Scotland and England in the 1290s and 1300s a particular emphasis was placed on St Andrew’s role as a protector of the Scots. In 1320, the famous letter known as the Declaration of Arbroath referred to St Andrew as the ‘patron for ever’ of the Scottish people. At this time St Andrews Cathedral was increasingly portrayed as a symbol of the Scottish nation.
A late medieval image of St Andrew with his traditional X-shaped cross. (Credit: University of St Andrews)
1249 – 1250 Margaret Becomes a Saint
Queen Margaret (the wife of Malcolm III) seems to have been regarded as a saint by the residents of Fife soon after her death in 1093. Miracles were recorded at Margaret’s tomb in Dunfermline in the twelfth and early thirteenth century. Margaret was formally canonised by Pope Innocent IV in 1250 following a long campaign supported by the Scottish and English kings.
The medieval nave of Dunfermline Abbey. Dunfermline was the main burial place for the Scottish royal family from the time of Margaret's death until the early fourteenth century. (Credit: Otter / Wikimedia)
1215 The Roman Catholic Church Officially Backs the Doctrine of Purgatory
In 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council officially declared the Roman Catholic Church’s belief in the doctrine of purgatory. This was the idea that most people did not proceed directly to heaven when they died, but spent time in an unpleasant waiting area where they suffered and were purged of their sins. To lessen the time a soul spent in purgatory it was important to lead a good life, sincerely confess sins, and have prayers and masses said after death. In the late Middle Ages a number of churches in Fife were adapted to make space for more altars where chaplains could perform masses and prayers for the dead. Most ranks of Scottish society from kings down to craftsmen invested in prayers for the souls of the dead.
The tower of the old parish church of St Michael at Cupar. St Michael’s was one of the many churches rebuilt in Fife during the late Middle Ages, partly to make space for more chapels and side altars for masses for the dead. (Credit: Jim Bain / Wikimedia)
c.1160 – 1318 A New Cathedral is Built at St Andrews
In the 1160s work began on a grand new cathedral at St Andrews (to replace the smaller church now known as St Rule’s which was then in use). The new cathedral was the largest roofed space constructed in Scotland in the Middle Ages. It took more than 150 years to build, and was eventually consecrated in 1318. The consecration ceremony (when it was officially blessed) was attended by King Robert the Bruce.
Reconstruction of St Andrews Cathedral in 1318. The older church of St Rule can be seen on the right. (Credit: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)
c.1124 – 1153 David I Reorganises Scottish Parishes and Dioceses
King David I (one of the sons of Margaret and Malcolm III) supported major changes in the Scottish Church. He increased the number of bishops and gave them oversight of dioceses organised in a similar fashion to Continental Europe. He also backed a rearranging of Scottish parishes, to make them function more like parishes in France and England. The parish boundaries established in Fife at this time survived for many centuries, and in some places still affect the shape of parishes today.
The parish church at Markinch. The church tower is thought to have been built during the reign of David I. (Credit: Mcwesty / Wikimedia)
c.1130 – 1230 New Religious Orders Introduced to Fife
The late eleventh and early twelfth centuries saw a wish for monks to follow stricter rules. A number of new religious orders such as the Cluniacs and the Cistercians were founded, who led a more austere way of life. The Scottish royal family proved enthusiastic supporters of the new monastic orders and helped introduce them to Fife. The period between about 1130 and 1230 saw the Cluniacs established on the Isle of May, new Cistercian monasteries founded at Balmerino and Culross, and a Tironesian Abbey set up at Lindores. At this time the Augustinian order also founded communities of canons at St Andrews, Loch Leven and Inchcolm.
The ruins of the chapter house at the former Cistercian monastery at Balmerino. (Credit: Ed Marin / Wikimedia)
c.1070 Queen Margaret Supports Religious Change
Around 1070 King Malcolm III’s wife Margaret (later known as St Margaret of Scotland) brought a group of Benedictine monks to Dunfermline. The Benedictines were the commonest monastic order in Western Europe at that time. Over succeeding years Margaret tried to bring religious practices in Scotland in line with customs in Continental Europe. Margaret also encouraged pilgrimage to St Andrews, and set up a new ferry and hostel for pilgrims crossing the Forth. This was the origin of North and South Queensferry.
The Forth Bridge seen from the air near North Queensferry. The Victorian railway bridge crosses the Forth close to the route of Queen Margaret’s historic ferry. (Credit: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)
965 First Recorded Pilgrims to St Andrews
By the tenth century St Andrews had become one of the most important churches in the kingdom of the Scots. In 965 the brother of the King of Tara died while on pilgrimage to St Andrews. This incident is the earliest evidence for St Andrews as a place of pilgrimage.
The medieval religious precinct at St Andrews viewed from the air. (Credit: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)
St Serf's Inch on Loch Leven. This island was home to an early Culdee community. (Credit: Mike Pennington / Wikimedia)
c.900 – 1050 Céli Dé (or Culdee) Communities Established in Fife
In the ninth and tenth centuries a new monastic movement known as the Céli Dé arrived from Ireland. Céli Dé means servants of God and is sometimes spelt as ‘Culdee’ in English. Communities of Céli Dé were established at St Andrews and Loch Leven, as well as several other locations in Scotland.
Detail of a hunting scene on the St Andrews Sarcophagus. (Credit: University of St Andrews)
The early medieval St Andrews Sarcophagus. (Credit: Historic Environment Scotland)
St Oran's Chapel on the island of Iona. (Credit: Libasstref / Wikimedia)
Early Christian carvings on the Skeith Stone. (Credit: James Allan / Wikimedia)
1969 Scotland’s First Cardinal Since the Reformation
Since the sixteenth century there had been no cardinals resident in Scotland. However, in 1969 Gordon Gray, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, was made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI.
1978 Fife’s First Female Church of Scotland Minister
In the late 1960s the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland agreed that women could be ordained as ministers on the same terms as men. The first woman to serve as a Church of Scotland minister in Fife was Mary Morrison, who began her ministry at Townhill in Dunfermline in 1978.
747 - Early Evidence for a Religious Centre at St Andrews
St Andrews was an important religious centre from an early date. There seems to have already been a monastery here in 747 when the death of the abbot Tuathalán was recorded. The spectacular stone monument known as the St Andrews sarcophagus probably also dates from the eighth century. Its carvings show similarities with religious art from Continental Europe.
c.600 – 800 Missionaries from Iona and Northumbria
The seventh and eighth centuries saw increasing conversion of the Picts (who then inhabited Fife and much of Scotland north of the Forth). Missionaries seem to have come from the island of Iona in the west, and from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria in the south.
Two spoons with Christian symbols from a hoard found at Traprain Law, probably dating from about 410 AD. (Credit: Tyssil / Wikimedia)
Silver from the Traprain Law Treasure, East Lothian, Scotland. Bowls of river spoons.
c.400 – 600 First Evidence for Christianity in Fife
The earliest evidence for Christianity in Fife comes from Christian symbols on carved stones and in caves. Early examples include the carvings on the Skeith Stone (which was found near Kilrenny) and cross markings at Caiplie Caves. These carvings probably date from the fifth and sixth centuries, and suggest that Christian missionaries were active in Fife at this time. St Serf (who is often associated with the areas around Loch Leven and Culross) and St Ethernan (who was supposedly buried on the Isle of May) were perhaps part of these early missions.
c.300 – 400 Arrival of Christianity in Scotland
Christianity was introduced to Southern Scotland during the Roman occupation of Britain. It is possible that some Christian communities survived the departure of the Romans and the subsequent period of migration and political change.
In May 1930 Dysart House, first built in 1756, was sold to Mrs Elsa af Wetterstedt Mitchell, and a month later she gifted it to the trustees for the Sisters of the Carmelite Community. They established a closed community with room for 24 nuns. The nuns belong to the order known as the Discalced or Teresian Carmelites, who were formed in the sixteenth century by St Teresa of Avila. The convent is dedicated to St Thérèse of Lisieux, a Carmelite nun who died in 1897. In the 1980s it became an Infirmary Carmel, dedicated to caring for sick and older nuns of the order. Mass and other services are now held in the convent for members of the public.
Dysart Carmelite Convent (Source: Stuart Mee, Dec. 2007)
St Clair Parish Church, West Port, Dysart
Following the Great Disruption in 1843, the minister of Dysart, John Thomson, and a large part of the congregation joined the Free Church. Their first church was opened the following year (1844) on the corner of West Quality Street and Fitzroy Street. By 1874 the congregation had outgrown the building and a new church was constructed in the West Port. The old church was sold, and by 1890 had become a Masonic Lodge. In the north transept of the new church there is a mural, uncovered in 2004, believed to have been painted by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1901. Following the union between the Free and United Presbyterian churches in 1900 it became known as St. Serf’s United Free. In 1929 the congregation re-joined the Church of Scotland, and in 1972 they merged with the Barony Church to become Dysart Parish Church- using the building in the West Port. In 2012 there was a union between the congregations of Dysart and Viewforth, and the resulting church is known as Dysart St Clair Parish Church, still based in the church in the West Port.
Dysart St Clair Parish Church (Source: Richard Fawcett, 2012)
In 1802-03 a new parish church was constructed in Dysart and the congregation moved from St Serf’s in an event known locally as the year of the big flittin. Known as the Barony Church and capable of sitting 1600 people, it was located to the north of the old parish church at the top of the town. Designed by Alexander Laing, David Murray described it as a neat plain building in 1845, by which point the congregation was around 1200. A hall was added to the building in 1932. In 1972 the congregation merged with St. Serf's United Free Church to become Dysart Parish Church and moved to the latter’s building in the West Port. Until 1997 it was used by the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), and recently it has been converted into affordable housing as part of Fife Historic Buildings Trust project (2008-2014).
Dysart Barony Church (Source: Richard Fawcett, 2012)
The Anti-Burgher Congregation in Dysart was formed in 1747. In the early years they met in an old barn before constructing their own church in 1763 at a cost of £100. It was capable of sitting 795. It was located in Pathhead, which, although now in Kirkcaldy, was in the parish of Dysart at the time. In 1820 the minister of the Anti-Burgher Church, Thomas Gray, opposed the union with the Burgher’s, losing around 2/5 of his congregation in the process to the new Union Church in Kirkcaldy. In 1845 his church was one of the two dissenting chapels in the parish noted by David Murray, the minister of the new Barony Church. He estimated they had a combined congregation of 800-900. In 1852 the congregation voted by a majority of 40 to 6 to merge with the Free Church, after which they became known as Dunnikier Free Church. In 1901 the church was sold and the congregation moved to a new building on Dunnikier Road. The church was demolished in 1967.
United Presbyterian Church, Relief Street, Dysart
A congregation belonging to the Relief Church was founded in Dysart sometime in the 1760s. In 1772 they opened their own church, which later became known as the Auld House, in a former malt barn on Relief Street. It cost £600 and was capable of sitting 650 people. In 1847 the congregation joined the United Presbyterian Church. By 1867 they had outgrown the Auld House and moved to a new church on Normand Road at a cost of £2600. The old building was sold and turned into a handloom factory. In 1900 the UP Church joined with the Free Church to become the United Free Church, and in 1929, when most United Free congregations rejoined the Church of Scotland, they chose to remain independent. The church closed in 2009 and was sold in 2014.
United Presbyterian Church, Normand Road (Source: Stuart Mee, Dec. 2007)
A chapel dedicated to St Denis/Denys, one of the patron saints of France, is thought to have been located at Pan Ha' in Dysart. Writing in 1794, George Muirhead noted the local tradition that the chapel had been part of a Dominican Friary. Cowan and Easson concluded that there is no reliable evidence there was ever a Dominican house in Dysart, although it has been speculated that they owned property in the town. The ruins of the building were converted into a forge shortly before 1794, and an Ordnance Survey of 1954 found some old walls, but no remains of a chapel. There is no firm evidence for the chapel’s existence, with the earliest references dating to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.
1780 drawing of the chapel. (Source: Anne Watters, Kirkcaldy's Churches: Brief Histories)
St Serf’s Tower and the Pan Ha (Source: Creative Commons)
St Serf’s Old Parish Church, Shore Road, Dysart
The church of St Serf in Dysart first appears in the documentary record in the 1220s, although it is clear that it had existed long before then. In the fifteenth century, it was expanded into a large and impressive structure, including the eight-storey high tower. The striking tower has an unusual martial appearance, with shot holes in the two lowest storeys of the south side, and may well have been part of the coastal defences along northern shore of the Forth. The church and its high altar were dedicated to St Serf, and there were several further altars in the church dedicated to St James, Anne, Mary and Magnus. After the Reformation the congregation used only part of the nave of the medieval church, abandoning the aisles and the chancel. The south chancel aisle was separated from the rest of the church and became (or more likely continued as) the burial place of the Sinclair family. In 1802-03 the congregation moved to the newly built Barony Church, and St Serf’s was abandoned.
(1) Engraving of the Old Church of St Serf’s, 1853 (Source: William Muir, ed, Notices of the Local Records of Dysart (Glasgow: Maitland Club 1853), p. 22.
St Serf’s Cave in Dysart has been connected to that important local saint since the early middle ages. Serf had dedications across Western Fife, Kinross and Clackmannanshire, and his relics could be found in Culross. The main source of information on the saint, the Vita St Servani, was composed sometime in the thirteenth century, probably in Culross, and it includes the first documentation of th link between Dysart and St Serf. According to the Vita, the cave was regularly used by Serf as a hermitage and he performed two miracles in it. The first involved the saint transforming water into wine, while the second was theological battle of wits between Serf and the Devil. The cave contains three natural chambers, into which benches have been carved, while steps and an ashlar door and a window between two of the chambers were added at a much later date. In the later middle ages there was a chaplain attached the cave who tended to the needs of visiting pilgrims. The cave is known locally as the Rud Chapel, or Chapel of the Holy Rood, although there is no medieval evidence to support this dedication.
Dysart, St Serf's Cave (Source: R. Fawcett)
The priory of May was founded by David I, sometime around the year 1140. It was dedicated to St Ethernan, and was affiliated to a mother house located at Reading in Berkshire. The monks were initially Cluniacs, followers of a reformed and stricter version of the Benedictine rule, before following the lead of their mother house and reverting back to the general Benedictine rule sometime after 1207. It is likely that the monks were attracted to the site on the Isle of May because it had an existing church and a connection to an important local saint. The excavation of the site in the 1990s found that there was already quite a substantial building on the site when monks arrived in the twelfth century, and that it was not until c.1250 that they constructed their own larger church. Of this church, the main survival today is the west wing, which was converted to secular use in the sixteenth-century. One other important discovery during the excavation was the grave of a young man dating from the early fourteenth century, which included a scallop shell placed in his mouth. This was a clear indication that the man, who had been buried in a prestigious location close to the high altar, had travelled to Santiago de Compostela on pilgrimage.
Sketch of the Ruins of the May chapel, 1869 (Source: Mathew Conolly, Fifiana: or Memorials of the East of Fife (Glasgow, 1869), p. 204)
St Ethernan/Adrian’s Chapel, Isle of May
The Isle of May was an important early Christian site which included a chapel and shrine from at least the ninth century, and probably earlier. The chapel, as well as a monastic site at Kilrenny and the Caiplie Caves are connected to two saints, Ethernan and Adrian. The name Adrian is a Latinised version of the Gaelic name Ethernan and veneration of Adrian was recorded in the same locations as Ethernan. Adrian is therefore almost certainly an offshoot or adaptation of the cult of St Ethernan. The island was home to a priory of Cluniac/Benedictine Monks from c.1140 to c.1318. After the monks relocated to Pittenweem, the relics on the island continued to attract pilgrims, including a number of Scottish kings and queens, until the Reformation brought the practice to an end.
Long- Cist Burial, Isle of May (Source: RCAHMS)
The parish church of Cellardyke was constructed in 1882. Two years earlier the arrival of a new minister at the parish church of Kilrenny led to a split in the congregation, with the fisherfolk of Cellardyke joining the Free Church and forming their own parish. In 1929 they rejoined the Church of Scotland. In 2016 a union took place between the Parish Churches of Anstruther and Cellardyke, with the congregation choosing to call the new entity, St Ayle Parish Church. This name was chosen as a tribute to the earliest recorded church in the Anstruther Easter, the fifteenth-century chapel of St Ayle. Since 2019 the congregation has been linked to Crail, sharing facilities and a minister.
Cellardyke Parish Church (Source: © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd)
Chalmer’s Memorial Free Church, Backdykes, Anstruther Easter
Following the Great Disruption in 1843, the minister of Anstruther Easter, William Ferrie, joined the Free Church, taking around 300 of his congregation with him. They built a small church in 1844 on a site in Hadfoot Wynd. In 1858 a larger, Gothic-style building was constructed on the same site, designed by the architect John Milne of St Andrews. In 1889 they moved again, this time to the Chalmers Memorial Church. Named after Thomas Chalmers, a key figure in the formation of the Free Church who was born in Anstruther, the new church was designed by the architect David Henry. The Free Church congregation joined with the United Presbyterians in Anstruther in 1900 and subsequently formed the Anstruther Chalmers Memorial United Free Church. After re-joining the Church of Scotland in 1929, it was known as Anstruther Chalmers Memorial, until a link was established with St Adrian’s Parish Church in 1973. Ten years later the church fell out of use, and into a derelict state. It was completely destroyed in a fire in 1991. There is no visible trace of the building, and houses have been built on the site.
Chalmers Memorial Church c.1890 (Source: Erskine Beveridge Collection)
Evangelical Church, Crail Road, Anstruther Easter
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 meeting house. A number of the group left to form the Baptist Church in 1812, with those remaining moving into a chapel on the Crail Road in 1833, built at a cost of £400. In 1844 there was a split within the congregation, with a large proportion embracing the Evangelical form of worship. The Congregationalists thereafter held meetings in the Town House in Shore Street, and their chapel became the Evangelical church. They joined the Evangelical Union in 1861, and worshipped on the site until 1916 or 1919. At this point the church seems to have disbanded, and the building was secularised. Today is used as a warehouse by Grey & Pringle.
Anstruther Evangelical Church (2007) (Source: © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd)
Baptist Chapel, East Green, Anstruther Easter
The church was formed following a visit to the town by James Haldane in 1812, and meetings were held thereafter in the building known as the Tabernacle. In 1839 the congregation split into two sects (Baptists and Paedo-Baptists), who shared the building until 1860 when the Baptists they moved into a new chapel on the East Green. It had seating for 220 people, and was enlarged with a further 120 seats in 1882. In 2003 a union between the Baptist congregations at Pittenweem and Anstruther formed what is now known as the Coastline Community Church. They moved in new premises in Pittenweem, and the chapel in Anstruther is no longer in use.
Anstruther Baptist Church (2007) (Source: © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd)
Erskine United Free Church, Back Dykes, Anstruther Easter
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 new church was opened in 1821. In 1847 they became part of the United Presbyterian Church, and in 1852 built and new, and considerably larger church on the same site, with room for 400 people. This was known as the Anstruther Erskine United Free Church, and had, by 1898, a congregation of around 100. In 1904, following the union with the Free Church (1900), the two congregations in the town were combined and moved to the Chalmers Memorial Church. This meant that the 1852 church building was surplus to requirements and it was sold. Since 1900 the building has been used as a Labour Exchange (1938) and Shirt Factory (1978). It is now part of the East Neuk Community Centre, known as the Erskine Hall (since 1994).
Anstruther Erskine United Free Church (2007) (Source: © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd)
In 1641 Anstruther Easter was separated from Kilrenny and became the smallest parish by area in Scotland at the time. Construction of a church begun in 1634, and it was ready for use by 1641, with a steeple and bell added in 1644. In a tribute to the town’s fishing heritage, a salmon shaped weather cock was located at the top of the church spire. Renovations were carried out in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with notable features including an east window including stained glass depictions of St. Peter and St. Philip (1905), The Miraculous Catch, Christ Stilling the Storm, St. John and St. Andrew (1907). In 1961 the decision was taken to unite the parish churches of Anstruther Wester and Easter, and the more modern church at Easter was chosen for the new congregation which took the name Anstruther (St Adrian's) Parish Church. In 2016 a further union took places between the Parish Churches of Anstruther and Cellardyke, with the congregation choosing to call the new entity, St Ayle Parish Church.
Anstruther Easter, St Adrian’s (Source: © Copyright Richard Sutcliffe and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence)
Anstruther Easter was part of the parish of Kilrenny until 1634, but by the later middle ages it was home to a growing fishing community. At some time in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth centuries, a chapel-at-ease was constructed to serve them. It was built on land belonging to the Abbey of Balmerino (where the Scottish Fisheries Museum now stands) and administered by the monks. In 1435 an indenture between Balmerino and the bishop of St Andrews, gave the monks the right to use the chapel to administer the sacraments to the local people. This meant that they would no longer have to travel to Kilrenny to baptise their children or get married, and the chaplain would have been able to administer the last rites. The chapel may have fallen out of use before the Reformation and after 1560 houses were built on the site. Some traces of the chapel could still be seen in the 1880s, and they were acquired and converted into the Scottish Fisheries Museum in the 1960s.
Former site of Chapel of St Ayle in Anstruther Easter (Source: Creative Commons)
The parish church of Anstruther Wester is first documented in 1225 when it was under the patronage of the monks of Isle of May. Dedicated to St Nicholas, patron saint of seafarers, by the later middle ages, the church was a large and complex structure with an impressive west tower added in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. The church itself survived largely intact until the 1840s and was adapted for Protestant use following the Reformation through the abandonment of the choir and, eventually the north aisle. In 1846 it was substantially remodelled, with only the tower surviving from the medieval structure. In 1961 the decision was taken to unite the parish churches of Anstruther Wester and Easter. The Wester church was deconsecrated in 1970 and converted into a Hall named after Hew Scott, a nineteenth-century minister, before changing its name again in 2014 to the Dreel Halls. In combination with the old town hall, since 2014 it has been owned and managed by Anstruther Improvements Association and serves as a community space for events, children’s groups and exhibitions.
Anstruther St Nicholas, 1844, Taylor (Source: R. Fawcett)
Anstruther Church, exterior, from south east (Source: R. Fawcett)
The Caves of Caiplie, or the Coves as they are known locally, are found about 3 miles to the east of Anstruther. They are natural caves carved in the rock face by sea action, which in places have been artificially enlarged. They have been long associated with two saints, Ethernan and his later medieval incarnation, Adrian. The largest cave, known as the ‘Chapel Cave’, contains a number of incised and pecked crosses, many of which have been identified as dating from the early middle ages. A further cave, known as the ‘Mortuary Cave’ is 6 metres to the north. In 1841 a long cist cemetery was found in front of this cave and it contains a Pictish arch symbol cut into the wall. The exact way in which these caves were used in the early middle ages is unclear, but it is likely that they were occupied by hermits. Other crosses date from the High and Later Middle Ages, indicating that the caves continued to have a sacred purpose, perhaps as a stopping place on the pilgrim routes to the Isle of May, Crail and St Andrews.
Until the late nineteenth century the people of North Queensferry worshipped in Inverkeithing or Dunfermline. The first parish church was built in the village in 1878, belonging to the Free Church. The congregation joined the United Free Church in 1900, and the Church of Scotland in 1929, but by 1962 the church was believed to be beyond repair and was demolished. By 1963 a new church was open and in use. By that time the charge was already shared with St John’s in Inverkeithing (1958), and now, since the union of St John’s and St Peter’s in 2006, with what is known as Inverkeithing Parish Church.
Church and War Memorial, North Queensferry
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 described itself as un-denominational and was served by a series of preachers, paid for by Mr Robertson, including Mr Hughson of the Scottish Coastal Mission
The chapel of St James first enters the documentary record in the early fourteenth century, but it was likely to have been founded sometime in the late twelfth or thirteenth centuries. It was a key station on probably the most important and well used of routes by which pilgrims approached St Andrews and Dunfermline. Most pilgrims from the south would have taken the ferry across the Forth and then stopped to give thanks for safe passage at the chapel. By the later middle ages, it was served by two chaplains who tended to the needs of pilgrims. Following the Reformation, the chapel fell out of use, before sometime in the early eighteenth century the interior of the chapel began to be used as a cemetery by mariners from the North Queensferry Sailors' Society.
View of the West Gable of the Chapel of St James (Source: Farrell, Stuart, 1998)
In 1913, nearly four centuries after the Protestant Reformation, a Roman Catholic congregation returned to Inverkeithing area with the foundation of the Church of St Peter-in-Chains in Jamestown. The development of the Royal Naval Dockyard at Rosyth after World War II led to the expansion of the congregation and eventually they moved to their current site in Hope Street in 1976-77. From 2010, a single priest served both Inverkeithing and Rosyth and in 2018 the parish was amalgamated with Rosyth and Dunfermline to form a South West Fife Parish, with services shared between the three locations.
St Peter-in-Chains, Hope Street, Inverkeithing (Source: Creative Commons)
In the early 1900s a revival moment swept through Fife and led to the formation Inverkeithing’s Baptist Church. A mission was first planted in the town in 1903, and following its success, particularly among quarry workers, a Church was founded in 1905. They met initially in the Music Hall, finally building their own church in 1917. A new building was constructed on the same site in 1980 and is still active with a congregation of 35-40.
View of site from north east. (Source: Amanda Gow (August 2007), © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for permission to use this image.
The Church of St John (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007) © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for permission to use this image.