Browse Items (658 total)
The newly built St Leonard’s Church in about 1904. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, JV44554.)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…
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)Little is known about the medieval chapel of St Mary Magdalene. Sixteenth-century property records indicate that it was located within the cathedral…
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)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…
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)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…
The remains of St Mary’s on the Rock. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)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…
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 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 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))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…
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)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…
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.)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…
The former United Secession Church on North Street. (Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)The United Secession Church had its origins in the splits within the Church of Scotland in the eighteenth century. The congregation worshipped for…
A naval inspection at Crail Airfield in the early 1940s. (Source: University of St Andrews Library, GMC-5-16-17.)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…
A section of old masonry which perhaps formed part of Crail Castle. (Source: William Jack / University of St Andrews Library, WMJ-EN-115-2.)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…
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.)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…
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.)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…
Holy Trinity Church in 2021. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews.)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…
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)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…
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)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…
The site of the supposed ‘nunnery’ on Nethergate – perhaps in reality a medieval chapel. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews.)
Houses on Rose Wynd in 2021. (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…
The west gable of Crail Community Hall – formerly St David’s Church. (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 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.)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…
Methil Hill Cemetery (Source: Bess Rhodes 2021)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…
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…
Scottish Coast Mission (Source: Places of Worship in Scotland)The Scottish Coastal Mission, founded in 1850, was a Protestant organisation dedicated to ministering to sailors and maritime communities. By 1861…
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…
German Seaman’s Mission (Source: Vintage Lundin Links and Largo).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…
St Agatha’s Roman Catholic Church, Methil (Source: Bess Rhodes)Nearly four centuries after the Protestant Reformation, a Roman Catholic congregation returned to Methil with the opening of a church in 1903. Located…
Wellesley Parish Church, Methil (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…
Methil and Denbeath Parish 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,…
Methil Evangelical Church (Source; Bess Rhodes)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…
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…
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…
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…
St Mary’s By the Sea (Source: Richard Fawcett 2012)The parish church of St Mary in East Wemyss, first recorded c.1230, belonged successively to the Hospital of Soutra and the Church of the Holy Trinity…
St_Mary_s_Chapel_west_wemyss.jpgSt Mary’s Chapel in West Wemyss was connected to the parish church in East Wemyss, as a dispute of 1527-28 noted that offerings at the chapel should…
St_Adrian_s_West_Wemyss.jpgA Church of Scotland ‘chapel at ease’ was built in what is now Church Street in West Wemyss in 1835. It was intended to save the villagers the long…
St George’s Church, East Wemyss (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021)At the Great Disruption in 1843 a large group of the congregation of East Wemyss parish church broke away and joined the Free Church. They began…
Site of Buckhaven Links Church (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007)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…
Buckhaven and Wemyss Parish Church (Source: Presbytery of Kirkcaldy, 2021)By 1869, the congregation of the United Presbyterian Church on Buckhaven Links took the decision to construct a new, larger, place of worship on…
St Andrew’s Church, Buckhaven (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007)After the Great Disruption of 1843, adherents of the Free Church in Buckhaven initially attended the church in East Wemyss, before the decision was…
In 1901 a Church of Scotland ‘chapel at ease’ was established to serve the inhabitants of Buckhaven. Constructed in St Michael’s Street, it became a…
Buckhaven Baptist Church (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007)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,…
Salvation Army (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007)A corps of the Salvation Army was first launched in Buckhaven in 1897, fell into abeyance and but was re-founded in 1936. They met in Mullin Hall…
The Buckhaven Christian Fellowship moved into the building on Institution Street in 1969. It had formerly been a United Free Church constructed in…
Buckhaven Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007)Jehovah’s Witnesses were first established in Buckhaven in 1971, moving into a building constructed c.1900 and previously occupied by a group known as…
Buckhaven Church of God (Source: Amanda Gow, 2007).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…
Buckhaven Baptist Church (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021)
Buckhaven Church of God (Bess Rhodes, 2021)
Buckhaven Parish Church (formerly St Davids) (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021)
Buckhaven Salvation Army (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021)
Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buckhaven (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021)
Font of St Michael’s Church, Buckhaven (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021)
St Andrew’s Church, Buckhaven (Source: Bess Rhodes, 2021)
Abdie Old Parish Church (Bess Rhodes).There has been a parish church at Abdie since at least the 1190s. For most of the Middle Ages the rectorship of Abdie was held by Lindores Abbey. The…
Abdie and Dunbog Parish Church (Bess Rhodes).Abdie and Dunbog Parish Church opened its doors in 1827. It was built to replace Abdie’s medieval parish church. The architects for the new building…
The site of the Mares Craig quarry in the early twentieth century. (Source: 1920 Ordnance Survey map of Fife and Kinross, Sheet VI.SE. Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/75530896).The hill known as Mares Craig was for many years a stone quarry. In the 1920s a Celtic handbell, of the type associated with early medieval religious…
The site of the old Baptist chapel in Newburgh. (Source: 1855 Ordnance Survey Map of Fife, sheet 4. Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/74426821)In 1808 a Baptist chapel was founded in Newburgh. The congregation was established by Archibald McLean, who was leading figure in the Scotch Baptists…
The former Baptist church on the north side of the High Street in Newburgh. This building was in use as a place of worship until the 2010s. (Source: Open Virtual Worlds / University of St Andrews)