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Anstruther /ˈænstrəðər/ (Locally Ainster /ˈɛnstər/ Scottish Gaelic: Ànsruthair) is a small coastal resort town in Fife, Scotland, situated on the north-shore of the Firth of Forth[7] and 9 mi (14 km) south-southeast of St Andrews. The town comprises…

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…

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…

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…

Arthropleura tracks near St Andrews, a cast of them can be seen in MUSA, the Scores, St Andrews

The origins of the ruined chapel at Ayton are unclear, although it has (probably incorrectly) sometimes been thought to be the same site as a chapel granted to Arbroath Abbey in the 1170s. A church is shown at Ayton on James Gordon’s manuscript map…

Balchrysty and its surroundings on the eighteenth-century Roy Military Survey.

There is thought to have been a chapel located slightly to the east of the ruins of Ballinbreich Castle. In the 1840s it was noted that ‘the foundations of an ecclesiastical edifice’ could still be seen here. It is possible that this was the site of…

Balmerino Abbey was founded in the 1220s by Queen Ermengarde and her son Alexander II. The new monastery at Balmerino was a Cistercian community, and was established with the assistance of monks from Melrose Abbey. Balmerino was a relatively small…

The burial ground towards the southern edge of Kirkton of Balmerino reflects the site of the old parish church. According to local legend the parish church moved here from Balmerino Abbey in 1611 because the aristocratic family who then owned the…

Balmerino Parish Church opened in 1811. Previously the residents of Balmerino had worshipped at an older church in Kirkton of Balmerino. In 1838 Balmerino Parish Church was described as ‘a plain building without any ornament’. However, in the 1880s…

During the eighteenth century there was an Anti-Burgher congregation in Balmullo. The Anti-Burghers were one of a number of Protestant dissenting groups in Fife at this time and arose from a split within the Secession Church in the 1740s (the…

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there was a Burgher Chapel located on the north side of Balmullo, near what is now Smithy Lane. The Burghers arose from a split within the Secession Church in the 1740s (the Secession Church having…

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…

In 1808 a Baptist chapel was founded in Newburgh. The congregation was established by Archibald McLean, who was leading figure in the Scotch Baptists (a group which developed in Edinburgh in the eighteenth-century and was rather more hardline than…

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…

The Baptist Chapel on the north side of the High Street in Newburgh was built in the early 1880s. It replaced an earlier chapel on a wynd on the south side of the same street. The funds for the new building were largely raised by James W. Wood, who…

Current use: Residential.

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…

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 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…

Boarhills Church was founded in the 1860s. The building was designed by George Rae. When the church was being constructed several stone cists were supposedly found – implying that the site may have had a religious purpose in the Early Middle Ages. In…

Braehead church, 2023.

Braehead Church, 2023. (B. Rhodes)

Braehead Church was built in the 1870s. It originally housed a Free Church Congregation. Following the union of the United Free Church and the Church of Scotland in 1929, the church became known as St Monans Braehead. Church of Scotland services…

Buckhaven’s Baptist Church was formed in the early 1900s as part of a wider revival moment in Fife. The earliest mission began in November of 1908, with a church formally founded in 1910. This early congregation had 20 members and met in the…

The Buckhaven Christian Fellowship moved into the building on Institution Street in 1969. It had formerly been a United Free Church constructed in 1934. The Fellowship were a Pentecostal Church, originally known as the Assembly of God. The group had…

The Buckhaven Church of God was formed as a breakaway from the Open Brethren in 1986. They are an evangelical organisation part of the global organisation known as the Churches of God. The church is still active.

In 1739 a Buckhaven resident and one of the elders of Wemyss Parish Church, Mr John Thomson, seceded from the Church of Scotland with a number of others and joined the Burgher Church. They attended first Bethelfield Associate Church in Kirkcaldy, and…

A guide to the stones used to build St Andrews.

A walking guide to the stones that St Andrews is built with.

A Burgher Church was built on the west side of Clinton Street in the 1780s. The Burghers were a break-away movement from the Church of Scotland and enjoyed considerable support in Newburgh. In the 1790s the local Church of Scotland minister commented…

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…

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…

Burntisland (/bɜːrntˈaɪlənd/, Scots: Bruntisland) is a former royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland, on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 6,269.

Dating from 1592, St. Columba's is the oldest pre-Reformation kirk still in use. In 1601, it was the venue of the General Assembly, held in the presence of King James VI, at which the need for a new translation of the Bible was suggested. The idea…

In 1517 the German academic Martin Luther published a series of criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther’s protest rapidly developed into an international religious crisis, which would ultimately lead to the creation of the movement we now…

During the 1550s a number of Roman Catholics worked to bring improvements to the Church in Scotland. Fife was at the heart of this movement, which was backed by John Hamilton, the new archbishop of St Andrews. This period saw efforts to improve the…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

The Reformation Parliament of 1560 saw Scotland officially declared a Protestant country. However, it took time to establish the structures of a Reformed Church across the nation. Fife was at the forefront of this movement. Local church courts, known…

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.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Bed of fossil tree (Lepidodendron) stumps in Carboniferous sequence near Cellardyke, Fife

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…

Deformation feature in Carboniferous sandstones near Cellardyke, Fife

Deformation structure within the Carboniferous sandstones at Cellardyke, Fife

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. It is unclear where that organisation met, but a group with the same name…

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,…

Channel cut into Carboniferous sandstones at Roome Bay, Crail

A chapel was recorded at Naughton in the twelfth century. It was linked to the medieval parish of Forgan. Both Forgan and the Chapel of Naughton were appropriated to St Andrews Cathedral. The site of the chapel is uncertain, but it may have been on…

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…