St Peter’s Episcopal Church, Hope Street, Inverkeithing
In 1899 the bishop of St Andrews, Dunblane and Dunkeld was successfully petitioned for the foundation of an episcopal mission church in Inverkeithing to cater to the community in nearby Jamestown. In 1902 a site in Witch Knowe Park was purchased from the Town Council and in 1903 St Peter’s Episcopal Church was constructed on a site in Hope Street, built to a design by Henry F. Kerr. The chancel was completed in 1910. By 1980 the congregation had declined in numbers, and the church building was split in two with nave converted into an all-purpose hall. The church is now used as a community hall, with services carried out at Inverkeithing High School.
St Peter’s Episcopal Church (Creative Commons) © Copyright 2021, SCHR Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for permission to use this image.
St John’s, Church Street, Inverkeithing
St John’s was founded in 1752 following a split within the congregation of St Peter’s parish church over the choice of a minister by right of patronage. 127 parishioners left the Church of Scotland, acquired a yard with houses on the north side of the burgh and in 1753 built St John’s Church. The building was heightened and widened in 1798-99 to accommodate what, by the 1830s, was a congregation comprising roughly half the burgh’s population. Initially a member of the Burgher Church, they joined the Associate Congregation in 1786, and the United Associate (Secession) Congregation in 1820. From 1780 to 1835 the minister was Reverend Ebenezer Brown, a gifted preacher with a nationwide reputation. In 1847 they became part of the United Presbyterian Church and following the union of the Free Church of Scotland and the United Presbyterian Church in 1900, the church was known as Inverkeithing United Free Church. In 1929 the congregation re-joined the Church of Scotland, and the charge was renamed Inverkeithing St John's Church of Scotland. In 2006 it united with St Peter’s, and is no longer in use for worship.
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.
A Franciscan Friary was founded in Inverkeithing in the fourteenth century. The Greyfriars, as they were known from the colour of their cowls, were a significant presence in the burgh, with their buildings and gardens stretching from Queen Street south, down to the harbour. Shortly before the Reformation the buildings and lands of the friars were sold to John Swinton of Luscar in 1559, and the friary itself was in ruins as early as August 1560. The only section of the friary to survive aboveground is the hospitium, the guest accommodation that formed the west wing of the friary. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was known as the Rot(h)mell Inn or the Inns, and a tradition had developed associating it with Anabella Drummond, queen consort of Robert III 1390-1406), who regularly resided in Inverkeithing in the 1390s. In the 1930s the Hospitium was subject to an antiquarian reconstruction by J Wilson Paterson (1932-35) and since then it has important community resource, used first as a community centre and library (1930s-1950s) and then from 1974, the upper storey became a town museum until it closed in 2006.
Sketch of ‘Annabella Drummond’s House’, 1894 (Source: John Geddie, The Fringes of Fife (Edinburgh, 1894), p. 41)
The parish church of St Peter is first documented in the twelfth century and by the later middle ages it was a large and impressive building containing eight separate altars dedicated to different saints. An elaborately carved baptismal font dating from c.1400 can still be found in the church. It was hidden at the Reformation and only rediscovered during renovation work in 1806. The west tower was added in the latter part of the fourteenth century, and by the fifteenth century the church had a large nave flanked by aisles on either side. In 1825 a fire swept the building, and the following year the old medieval nave was entirely rebuilt to the designs of James Gillespie Graham. The only part of the medieval church to survive the reconstruction of the 1820s was the tower. Aside from a brief period during the repairs in the early 1800s and in 2006-2007, St Peter’s has remained an active parish church for more than 800 years.
Parish Church of St Peter, West Tower (Source: Tom Turpie)
The chapel of Inverkeithing is first mentioned in the 1150s when it belonged to Abbey of Dunfermline. While it has been suggested that this chapel later became the parish church, the source notes that it was located outside of the burgh, so it is likely to have been a different building, possibly related to a hospital that was found close to the west port of the burgh. It was last mentioned in the 1220s and seems to have disappeared sometime thereafter. Inverkeithing was a key station on the pilgrim road to St Andrews and Dunfermline, and the chapel, and hospital, both located close to the west port of the burgh, were probably intended to serve the needs of pilgrims.
Local tradition records that Christianity was brought to Inverkeithing in around 500AD by a holy man called St Erat. An ancient well known as Heriot’s or Erat’s, after which nearby Heriot Street is also named, can be found close to the site of the later medieval parish church. The well is first recorded in a charter of 1219, but the earliest firm reference to it as Eriot’s well can only be dated to 1588. A tradition seems to have developed in the late nineteenth century which suggested that Erat was a follower of St Ninian (one of the most popular medieval Scottish saints, whose shrine was at Whithorn in Galloway), and that he arrived in Inverkeithing sometime in the fifth century AD. The well, and a chapel at nearby Fordell, are the only recorded dedications to a saint named Erat or Theriot in Scotland and there are no contemporary documents nor archaeological evidence that confirm the local tradition.
Plaque outside the Parish Church of Inverkeithing (Source: Tom Turpie)
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. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/st-salvators-college-chapel/93059)
St Leonard’s Chapel has a long and varied history. The Culdees may have had a pilgrim hospital on this site in the Early Middle Ages. In the 1140s the hospital and its property were given to the newly founded St Andrews Cathedral Priory. An association with St Leonard is first recorded in the thirteenth century, when the hospital was still serving pilgrims visiting the shrine of St Andrew. At some point between 1250 and 1413 St Leonard’s came to be a parish church, but remained under the control of the Cathedral Priory. By the beginning of the sixteenth century pilgrimage to St Andrews had declined and the hospital was providing shelter to a group of elderly poor women. In 1512 the old women were removed and a new university college dedicated to St Leonard was founded on the site. Significant sections of the chapel appear to date from this time, and the arms of one of the college’s founders (Prior John Hepburn) can be seen on a buttress on the south side. In 1747 St Leonard’s College joined with St Salvator’s College to create the United College (which was based in St Salvator’s Quad on North Street). This union led to major changes. The congregation of St Leonard’s removed to St Salvator’s Chapel in 1761. The university sold the St Leonard’s buildings a little while later, but excluded the chapel from the sale. No longer used as a place of worship it was partly dismantled, and by the time Samuel Johnson visited St Andrews in 1773 the former chapel was being used as ‘a kind of green-house’. During the nineteenth century the wider St Leonard’s buildings became a school, and some conservation work was done on the chapel. In 1910 the church was re-roofed, and after the Second World War it once again became a university chapel. Services are celebrated here each week during term time.
St Leonard’s Chapel after 1761. The chapel was then in ruins and being used to grow shrubs, although the (now demolished) college tower was still standing. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, OLI-15. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/st-leonards-chapel/93063)
Following the Reformation the authorities in St Andrews (like many other Scottish towns) prosecuted Roman Catholics. This meant that for several centuries there was no official Catholic congregation in St Andrews. As religious toleration increased in the nineteenth century Catholicism returned to the area. In 1885 a Roman Catholic church dedicated to St James was founded on the Scores, looking out over the sea. The original church was made of corrugated iron and was sometimes known as the ‘Tin Tabernacle’. In 1909 the iron church was removed and replaced by a stone church designed by Reginald Fairlie, who would later become a leading Scottish architect (designing among other sites the National Library of Scotland). The interior of the church underwent some alteration in the 1970s to reflect new approaches to worship following the Second Vatican Council (which ended in 1965). Today St James’s remains a Roman Catholic church, serving the residents and students of St Andrews.
The original iron Church of St James being removed in 1909. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, GMC-F-95. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/st-jamess-church-st-andrews/8269)
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.
North Street around the site of St Anna’s Chapel, c. 1580. The larger building with three windows towards the centre of the image may represent the former chapel. (Source: John Geddy, ‘S. Andrew sive Andreapolis Scotiae Universitas Metropolitana’. NLS, MS.20996. Available at: http://maps.nls.uk/towns/rec/215)
St Andrew’s Church was built to replace a smaller Episcopal church (also dedicated to St Andrew) which once stood on North Street. The foundations for the new church were laid in 1867, and the church was consecrated (in other words officially blessed for worship) in 1877. The building was designed by Sir Robert Rowland Anderson, and originally had seating for 600 worshippers. During its early history the grand new church was often referred to as a cathedral. In the 1890s a tower was added to St Andrew’s, but it was felt to be structurally unsound and was demolished shortly before the Second World War. St Andrew’s Church remains an Episcopal place of worship to this day.
St Andrew’s Episcopal Church in about 1955. Photograph by George Cowie. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, GMC-29-20-4. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/st-andrews-episcopal-church-queens-terrace-st-andrews/585969)
In 1690 Scotland officially became a Presbyterian country, rejecting episcopacy (or the government of the church by bishops). Some Scots did not accept the changes, forming the origins of the Scottish Episcopal Church. There have been Episcopalians in St Andrews ever since this split, but it was not until the early nineteenth century that discrimination had reduced enough for them to build an official church. In 1824 work began on an Episcopalian chapel dedicated to St Andrew and located on North Street. The original chapel was designed by John Burn, but in the 1850s the west front was remodelled by the well-known Gothic architect George Gilbert Scott. During the mid-nineteenth century St Andrew’s Chapel had seating for 200 people, but this soon became too few for the growing Episcopal community. In 1867 the Episcopalians laid the foundations of a larger church on Queen’s Terrace. A few years later St Andrew’s Chapel was dismantled and the stones were shipped to the south side of Fife to construct Buckhaven Free Church. The site of St Andrew’s Chapel is now occupied by College Gate (one of the main administrative buildings of the University of St Andrews).
St Andrew’s Chapel in about 1865. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, ALB-10-62. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/st-andrews-chapel-st-andrews/43875 )
The Salvation Army started a corps in St Andrews in 1893. After some difficulties in the early years, there was a continuous Salvation Army presence in St Andrews from 1934 until 2003. During the 1980s the Salvation Army acquired a former house on North Street for meetings. This property was sold in the early twenty-first century and converted into a restaurant.
The first version of Martyrs’ Church was built in the 1840s by a Free Church congregation (one of the groups that broke away from the Church of Scotland in the mid-nineteenth century). The congregation rapidly expanded, and in 1851 the building was remodelled by the architect John Milne to allow for the growing numbers attending the church. At the start of the twentieth century the Free Church became the United Free Church, which then in 1929 rejoined the Church of Scotland. Shortly before this reunion, Martyrs’ Church was again rebuilt, this time by the well-known Fife architects Gillespie and Scott. This version of the church was used as a place of worship until the early twenty-first century when the congregation joined with Hope Park Church. The formers Martyrs’ Church now serves as a research library for the University of St Andrews, and retains many of its distinctive architectural features.
North Street in about 1846. The bell turret of Martyrs’ Kirk can be seen on the left-hand side of the street, opposite St Salvator’s Chapel. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, EPM-JA-10. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/north-street-st-andrews/100475)
Hope Park was built in the 1860s for the United Presbyterians, who had previously been worshipping in a house on North Street. The church was designed by the architects Peddie and Kinnear. The new church was originally towards the western edge of St Andrews, as at that time the housing along Doubledykes Road and Hepburn Gardens had not yet been constructed. Like several other churches in St Andrews, Hope Park was affected by the varying realignments of Scottish Protestants during the early twentieth century. In 1900 the United Presbyterians became the United Free Church of Scotland, which in 1929 then rejoined the Church of Scotland. During the early twenty-first century the congregation of Hope Park joined with Martyrs’ Kirk (a Church of Scotland congregation which was formerly based on North Street). The church is now known as Hope Park and Martyrs.
Hope Park Church in about 1860. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, ALB-49-33. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/u-p-united-presbyterian-church-st-andrews/80687)
Holy Trinity Church, South Street, St Andrews
Since the early fifteenth century Holy Trinity Church has been located on South Street. The current site was given by Sir William Lindsay of the Byres for the citizens of St Andrews to build ‘a church in honour of the Holy Trinity with a row of pillars on each side of the nave’. During the late Middle Ages Holy Trinity was the focus for pious donations by St Andrews residents, and at the time of the Reformation it was served by about thirty priests. As the burgh church of St Andrews Holy Trinity was at the heart of the religious upheavals of the sixteenth century. During the siege of St Andrews Castle in 1546 and 1547 it was the scene of competing sermons by Catholic and Protestant preachers – including a young John Knox. In June 1559 Knox returned to Holy Trinity and delivered a fateful sermon which encouraged the St Andrews burgh council to reject Catholicism and establish a Protestant city. Holy Trinity then became a focal point for religious reform, playing a key role in the establishment of new patterns of religious administration and discipline. In the seventeenth century, when the archbishopric of St Andrews was restored, Holy Trinity became for a brief period a cathedral. The monument to Archbishop Sharp on the south side of the church forms a reminder of this period of the church’s history. Over the centuries Holy Trinity has undergone several redesigns, including at the Reformation, at the start of the nineteenth century, and at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, several elements of the medieval church still exist. The high tower and spire of Holy Trinity have changed little since the Middle Ages. Some of the original pillars requested by Sir William Lindsay also survive.
Holy Trinity Church in 1767. Drawing by John Oliphant. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, OLI-16. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/trinity-church-st-andrews/93065)
The Franciscan friary in St Andrews shortly after the Reformation. (Source: John Geddy, ‘S. Andrew sive Andreapolis Scotiae Universitas Metropolitana’. NLS, MS.20996. Available at: http://maps.nls.uk/towns/rec/215)
Gospel Hall, Market Street, St Andrews. (Source: Bess Rhodes)
The Congregational chapel on Market Street in the 1850s. (Source: 1854 Ordnance Survey Map of St Andrews. Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/74416778)
St Andrews Castle at the end of the seventeenth century. The windows of the castle chapel (with their quatrefoil tracery) can be seen to the right of the fore tower. (Source: John Slezer, ‘The Ruins of the Castle of St Andrews’, Theatrum Scotiae (1693). Available at: http://digital.nls.uk/slezer/engraving.cfm?sl=15)
The Congregational Church on Bell Street in 1895. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, StA-BellS-1. Available at: https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/bell-street-st-andrews-from-n/123317)
The area now called Hallow Hill was once known as Eglesnamin. This name also has religious associations, with 'egles' appearing to be a Pictish word for a church. Hallow Hill may in fact be one of the oldest religious sites in St Andrews. There was an early medieval cemetery here, and numerous burials in stone long-cists have been excavated on the hillside. In the 1140s the lands of Eglesnamin were given to the newly founded priory of Augustinian canons at St Andrews Cathedral. In 1555 the area was described as All Hallow Hill (which means All Saints’ Hill), implying that people still felt the place had a religious significance.
The Hallow Hill area in 1968 before large-scale housing development. The hill is bounded on the north by the Kinness Burn, to the west by the Cairnsmill Burn, and to the south by the medieval Canongate. (Source: Ordnance Survey, Sheet NO 41 NE. Available from the National Library of Scotland: https://maps.nls.uk/view/188141295)
Holy Trinity Church, Cathedral Precinct, St Andrews
The parish of Holy Trinity is first recorded in the 1140s, when Bishop Robert was reorganising religious life in St Andrews. For centuries Holy Trinity was the main church for the residents of St Andrews. The church was originally located within the Cathedral precinct a little to the north of the surviving ruins of St Rule’s Church. At the start of the fifteenth century the citizens of St Andrews built a new parish church on South Street, closer to the residential and commercial area of St Andrews, and the original Holy Trinity ceased to serve as a parish church. The building was briefly used by the newly founded University of St Andrews, but seems to have been demolished at some point before the middle of the sixteenth century.
The original parish church of Holy Trinity was probably a little to the north of St Rule’s, in the area towards the centre and right side of this photograph. (Source: Bess Rhodes)
The Burgher Kirk shown in 1820 on John Wood’s plan of St Andrews. (Source: National Library of Scotland, EMS. X.009)
The Burgher Kirk shown in 1820 on John Wood’s plan of St Andrews. (Source: National Library of Scotland, EMS. X.009. Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/74400057)
During the late Middle Ages an Observant Franciscan friary was located on a large plot of land between Market Street and North Street (where Greyfriars Garden now stands). The friary was founded by Bishop Kennedy in the mid-fifteenth century. The Observant Franciscans were committed to both personal and institutional poverty, and largely survived on gifts of food, money, and clothing from pious members of the public. They had a strong preaching tradition, and in the sixteenth century several friars from St Andrews resisted the spread of Protestant ideas, including helping prosecute heretics. Indeed, in 1539 Friar Simon Maltman, the warden of the St Andrews Franciscans, was sent to advise the Archbishop of Glasgow on how to conduct a heresy trial. Maltman also preached at the last major heresy trial in Scotland before the Reformation – which resulted in the execution of Walter Myln outside St Andrews Cathedral. However, the friars were fighting a rear-guard action. In May 1559, with religious rebellion sweeping Scotland, the Franciscans handed over their friary in St Andrews to the local urban authorities. Despite this, the buildings were attacked by Protestant activists a month later. Shortly afterwards the friars fled to Continental Europe. The Franciscan friary was the only one of St Andrews’ mid-sixteenth-century Catholic institutions where none of the churchmen converted to Protestantism.
The Gospel Hall is in a former shop on the narrow section of Market Street. Christian Brethren (traditionally sometimes called Plymouth Brethren) have worshipped here since at least 1914. During the early twentieth century the Plymouth Brethren had a growing presence in the Fife fishing communities, and between the wars fishermen cycled up from villages such as St Monans to worship at the Gospel Hall in St Andrews.
Friends Meeting House, Howard Place, St Andrews
Since 1993 Quaker meetings have been held in a Victorian house on Howard Place. The Society of Friends occupy the lower two storeys of the house, with meetings taking place in a simply furnished room on the ground floor. There has been a group of Quakers in St Andrews since at least 1967.
Christian Brethren Hall, Greenside Place, St Andrews
In the 1930s the Christian Brethren leased a cottage on Greenside Place. This was subsequently converted into a hall for worship. The Christian Brethren used the hall until the early twentieth century. The property was then sold, and the building once again returned to being a house.
Congregational Church, 105 Market Street, St Andrews
A Congregational church was built on the north side of Market Street in 1807. The church had seating for 320 people. There were two entrances from the street and there appears to have been a gallery above the doorways. During the early nineteenth century Thomas Paton, one of St Andrews’ first Congregational ministers, established a Sunday school in the burgh. The church closed in 1854 after the congregation moved to a new building on Bell Street.
Congregational Church, Bell Street, St Andrews
During the mid-nineteenth century a Congregational church was built on the east side of Bell Street. It was substantial Victorian stone building designed by the architects Andrew Kerr and Jesse Hall. The church closed in the 1960s, and was demolished in 1983. The site is now occupied by shops.
St Andrews Castle was once the home of the bishops of St Andrews. There seems to have been a castle on this site since at least the 1190s. We do not know exactly when the castle chapel was built, but it is likely that there was a place of worship here from an early date. By the late Middle Ages the chapel was located towards the south-eastern corner of the castle. The chapel windows appear to have had a quatrefoil design at the top, not unlike some of the windows on St Leonard’s Chapel. Records from the time of Bishop Kennedy (who died in 1465) reveal that the castle chapel was richly furnished, with hangings, embroidered cushions, and silk and velvet vestments for the priests. Meanwhile early sixteenth-century accounts contain payments for wax candles and the washing of the altar linen at the castle chapel. Following the Reformation St Andrews Castle continued to be occupied for a while, although it is possible that the chapel stopped serving a religious purpose. During the early seventeenth century the castle fell into disrepair, and in 1656 stone from the castle was removed to repair the long pier at St Andrews Harbour.
Burgher Meeting House, 141 South Street, St Andrews
In 1774 the Burgher congregation in St Andrews moved to a building in a yard on the north side of South Street. This property still exists and is now faced in yellow harling. The congregation does not seem to have been particularly large. In 1793 only 91 dissenters ‘of all denominations’ were recorded in the burgh of St Andrews, with a further five dissenters in the suburb of Argyle. The congregation relocated to a house on North Street in 1826.
During the 1730s a section of the Church of Scotland was unhappy with how ministers were appointed and the allocation of religious wealth. They formed a break-away group known as the Secession Church. This then split again in the late 1740s, leading to the creation of the Burgher Church. In St Andrews the members of the Burgher Church met in an old barn on Imrie’s Close. This was used as a place of worship between 1749 and 1774. In the mid-twentieth century there were plans to demolish the former kirk, but the property was rescued and restored by the St Andrews Preservation Trust. It is now a small house.
The Dominican order (or black friars) arrived in St Andrews during the fifteenth century. There are references to a Dominican place or house in St Andrews in the 1440s. This was then developed into a fully established friary at the start of the sixteenth century, occupying a prime location on South Street. To support the new foundation funds were diverted from the black friars’ sites in Cupar and St Monans – a move that was justified on the basis that St Monans was merely a poor fishing village and Cupar was increasingly impoverished, while the presence of a university in St Andrews meant it was a suitable place for educated men. The Dominicans played a significant role in St Andrews during the early sixteenth century, preaching regularly, engaging with education, and taking part in major heresy trials. In 1559 the Dominicans’ buildings were attacked by Protestant activists and the friars ‘violently expelled’. The black friars’ site was later handed over to the St Andrew burgh council with the intention that it should support education, care for the poor and sick, and fund the new Protestant ministry.
St Andrews’ Dominican friary shortly after the Reformation. (Source: John Geddy, ‘S. Andrew sive Andreapolis Scotiae Universitas Metropolitana’. NLS, MS.20996. Available at: http://maps.nls.uk/towns/rec/215)
There has been a Baptist church on South Street since the early 1840s. When the original church opened it had seating for 250 people. The main space for worship was on the first floor and there were shops below. Around 1900 the church was remodelled by the architects Gillespie and Scott, creating the building that the Baptist congregation uses today.
The original Baptist chapel on a mid-nineteenth-century map. (Source: 1854 Ordnance Survey Map of St Andrews. Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/74416778)
Walter Bower describes life at St Andrews Cathedral Priory in the late Middle Ages. (Read by Professor Michael Brown.)
St Andrews Cathedral was once the most important church in Scotland. It was the base for the country’s senior bishopric and housed the relics of Jesus’s disciple Andrew (the nation’s patron saint). The origins of St Andrews Cathedral stretch back into the Early Middle Ages when there was a Celtic monastery in this area. In the twelfth century religious life in St Andrews underwent major changes, and a priory of Augustinian canons took over care of the church and shrine. During the 1160s work began on a vast new Cathedral, which was eventually consecrated (in other words officially blessed and opened for worship) in 1318 in the presence of King Robert the Bruce. The completed Cathedral was the largest building constructed in Scotland before the nineteenth century. It was a centre of pilgrimage, learning, power, and law. Indeed, the church courts in St Andrews were among the busiest in the kingdom. However, in 1559 the Protestant Reformers tore apart this Catholic power base. The Cathedral was stripped of furnishings, altars and statues were smashed, and wooden images and Catholic mass-books were burnt. The vast church rapidly fell into ruin, and orchards, gardens, and houses took over much of the wider Cathedral site. Today the core of the former religious buildings are cared for by Historic Environment Scotland, whilst much of the wider site is occupied by St Leonard’s School.
A video showing how St Andrews Cathedral may have appeared in 1318. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / Smart History)
Interior of All Saints’ Church in about 1920. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, GMC-F-94.)
All Saints’ Church originally served the St Andrews fishing community (which was traditionally focused around the east end of town). In 1903 a small iron mission church was established, and in 1907 a stone chancel was added. Following the First World War further building work took place, and the completed church was consecrated on All Saints’ Day in 1923. Much of the construction work was paid for by Mrs Younger of Mount Melville who instructed that Holy Communion must be the main service every Sunday morning. (At that time Matins was more commonly the principal morning service in Episcopal churches.)
Interior of All Saints’ Church in about 1920. Manifest.
Arthropleura tracks near St Andrews, a cast of them can be seen in MUSA, the Scores, St Andrews
Channel cut into Carboniferous sandstones at Roome Bay, Crail
The Tolbooth built in 1598 and tower, rebuilt in 1776 contain well cut blocks of both local sandstone (buff-coloured) and material from Locharbriggs Quarry, Dumfries (dark red sandstone)
The Memorial Fountain was built in 1897 and is dedicated to Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. It is built of both grey and red granite.
Raised beach platforms at Kingcraig, nr. Elie, Fife
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This bay doesn’t actually have rubies, it’s named after the tiny red garnets in the sand which look a bit like rubies to the untrained eye. You might find some if you get down on your hands and knees sift through the sand.
This area between Kinghorn and Kirkcaldy has some pillow basalts as well as fossilised corals and crinoids.
A walking trail to see the Geology between Kinghorn and Kirkcaldy.
St Monans has a number of fossils including corals and also a coal seam. The rocks here have been folded and tilted since they were deposited.
A walking trail to see the Geology of St Monans.
At Wormit there is a wide variety of geology including lava flows, river conglomerates, intrusive rhyolite and glacial erratics.
A walking trail to see the geology of Wormit.
Overview of Kinkell Ness with Rock and Spindle
Deformation structure within the Carboniferous sandstones at Cellardyke, Fife
Deformation feature in Carboniferous sandstones near Cellardyke, Fife
Bed of fossil tree (Lepidodendron) stumps in Carboniferous sequence near Cellardyke, Fife
Carboniferous volcanic vent, Kinkell Ness has at its centre the Rock and Spindle
Holy Trinity Church features many interesting types of stone, including a beautiful alabaster and marble pulpit.
Holy Trinity Church St Andrews - A Testimony in Stone
A guide to the different types of stone used to build Holy Trinity Church.
At Aberdour the country rock (carboniferous sandstone) has been intruded by younger magma. There are also good examples of faulting and cross bedding.
A walking trail to see the geology of Aberdour.
The rock at Crail is largely Carboniferous Sandstone and Shale, but a variety of types of rock have been used to build the village.
A walking guide to the stones that St Andrews is built with.
A guide to the stones used to build St Andrews.
The Rock and Spindle is an ancient volcanic vent, and it has an excellent example of radial columnar jointing (it looks like spokes of a wheel) due to the way the magma cooled. The rock just to the north of the Rock and Spindle is believed to be a section of the volcano that collapsed in on itself.
Kingsbarns has a variety of different fossils including 330 million year old millipede tracks. There are also fossilised shells and the imprints of ancient roots of trees called Lepidodendron which grew in Fife during the Carboniferous era.
Geological field guide to Kingsbarns Beach.