Browse Items (658 total)

In the 1840s the minister of Forgan, Charles Nairn, supported the construction of a new parish church, located on the main road between Leuchars and Newport. The move was made partly in order to bring the church closer to the main centres of…

Forgan Parish Church and its location near the road and the local smithy. Ordnance Survey Map of Fife, 1855

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…

Joan Blaeu’s map of Fife with detail of Naughton or ‘Nachton’

West Hall in Wormit was built in the 1890s as a mission hall for the Church of Scotland. The building was designed by Major Thomas Cappon, who also created the plans for St Mary’s Episcopal Church in Newport-on-Tay. In 1911 West Hall became Wormit…

Trinity Church was established in the 1880s for the Newport-on-Tay United Presbyterian congregation. The church building was designed by the architects C. and L. Ower. Following the amalagamation of the United Presbyterians with the Free Church in…

During the late Middle Ages the Chapel of St Thomas of Seamylnes was located near the coast in the Newport-on-Tay area. In the 1440s the local ferry across the Tay paid the chapel of St Thomas an annual rent of ten merks. The exact site of the chapel…

St Mary’s Church was built in the 1880s by Newport’s growing Episcopalian community. The building was designed in a Gothic style by Major Thomas Cappon. The original interior was relatively plain, but became increasingly decorated over the course of…

St Fillan’s Roman Catholic Church in Newport-on-Tay is a rare surviving example of a so-called ‘tin tabernacle’ – in other words a church built out of corrugated iron. Tin churches were popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as they…

During the nineteenth century the population of Newport-on-Tay grew significantly. In the 1860s a campaign developed for a parish church in Newport, rather than local residents having to walk out to Forgan Parish Church. Work began on a parish church…

A Congregational church was established in Newport-on-Tay in 1801. In the 1860s a substantial Gothic style church was built for the congregation at the foot of Kilnburn. It was designed by the architect David Mackenzie. Newport-on-Tay Congregational…

There is a church recorded at Forgan in the twelfth century. The old parish church at Forgan was appropriated to St Andrews Cathedral Priory for much of the Middle Ages. The church survived the Reformation, and for part of the 1560s had a canon of St…

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the bishops of St Andrews had a residence at Inchmurdo. This has been tentatively identified as being located near the dovecote at Lower Kenly. In the 1980s some remains possibly associated with the…

The old doocot at Kenly. The bishop’s palace may have been nearby. Photo by Hamish Brown. (H. Brown / University of St Andrews)

During the early 2020s the Church of Scotland congregation at St Monans made the decision to worship at their church hall, rather than using the harder to access medieval church building. As of 2024, the church hall on Station Road is the main Church…

St Monans Parish Church Hall, 2023. (B. Rhodes)

Gospel Hall in St Monans was built in the 1950s. However, the evangelical congregation that worship at Gospel Hall have had a presence in St Monans since the 1920s. As of 2024 it remains a place of worship.

Gospel Hall, St Monans, 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…

Braehead Church, 2023. (B. Rhodes)

The former parish church of Abercrombie is first recorded around 1160. During the Middle Ages both Dunfermline Abbey and Culross Abbey had rights regarding Abercrombie, and the parish church was at times a focus for disputes between the two…

St Monans and Abercrombie [Abircroy] on J. Blaeu’s map of Eastern Fife, 1654. (National Library of Scotland)

There has been Christian activity at Kilrenny since Pictish times, and it is likely that there was an early medieval church on or near the site of the present day parish church. In the 1160s patronage of the church at Kilrenny was granted to Dryburgh…

St Saviour’s Episcopal Church stood on the main road through Guardbridge. It was built around 1900 and was designed by C.F. Anderson. The church closed in 1999 and is now a private house.

It is thought that a medieval chapel, possibly dedicated to St Bonach, once stood not far from the current site of Leuchars Parish Church. The chapel may have survived into the sixteenth century. In 1908 a number of long cist burials were unearthed…

During the First World War the Royal Flying Corps established a presence at Leuchars. This subsequently became an RAF station. A military chapel dedicated to St Peter was established at the site. In 2015 the RAF handed over Leuchars to the army. It…

For much of the nineteenth century there was no church in Guardbridge. However, in the 1880s the United Presbyterians established a church on the main road through the village, and the church is clearly marked on the 1896 Ordnance Survey Map of Fife.…

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…

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…

Braehead church, 2023.

St Monans and Abercrombie [Abircroy] on J. Blaeu’s map of Eastern Fife, 1654.

Kingsbarns Parish Church, 2023.

There was formerly a United Presbyterian Church on Castle Street. The church building is clearly marked on the 1850s Ordnance Survey map of Fife. The New Statistical Account (compiled in the 1830s) remarks on the presence of “a small dissenting…

Site of the United Presbyterian Church on the 1855 Ordnance Survey map of Fife.

Our Lady Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church

Ferryport-on-Craig is the old name for Tayport – the name changed in the nineteenth century under influence from the railways. During the Middle Ages Ferryport-on-Craig was probably part of the parish of Leuchars. In 1606 James VI and I authorised…

Tayport Auld Kirk

There appears to have been a church at Newburn as early as the twelfth century, and perhaps some time before that. For much of the Middle Ages the parsonage of Newburn was appropriated by the Abbey of Dunfermline. Following the Reformation the church…

The ruins of Newburn Old Parish Church.

Newburn Parish Church was built around 1815, replacing a nearby medieval church. It was designed by the Largo architect Alexander Leslie. The New Statistical Account (for which information was gathered in the 1830s) describes Newburn as “commodious…

Newburn Parish Church was built around 1815, replacing a nearby medieval church. It was designed by the Largo architect Alexander Leslie. The New Statistical Account (for which information was gathered in the 1830s) describes Newburn as “commodious…

The converted parish church at Newburn.

It has been suggested that there was a Culdee chapel at Balchrystie. The Old Statistical Account (compiled in the 1790s), claims that there were Culdees here in the time of Malcolm Canmore (r. 1058-1093). During the mid-eighteenth century the…

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

During the twelfth century there was a parish church at Coultra. However, this appears to have been abandoned in the thirteenth century when the congregation moved to Balmerino – where they probably worshiped in the nave of the newly founded…

A Free Church congregation was established at Gauldry in the 1840s. The site of the church is clearly marked on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey (published in 1855). Supposedly, the church building was converted from an old weaver’s shop –…

Current use: residential.

Current use: Residential.

Strathkinness Parish Church was built in the 1860s. The building underwent major repairs in the 1930s, following the union between the village’s Church of Scotland and Free Church congregations. In the 1950s two stained glass windows from St…

A Free Church congregation was established at Strathkinness in the 1840s during the Great Disruption. In the 1860s they built a church on Main Street in Strathkinness. The Free Church was converted into a community hall in the 1930s, as following 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…

The chapel at Drumoig Vicarsford Cemetery is a remarkably fine Victorian Gothic structure, inspired by the design of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. It was built in the late nineteenth century as a memorial to Lady Leng and is non-denominational. The…

The origins of the United Free Church on King Street go back into the nineteenth century. Work began on a church on this site in the 1840s, although there have been significant changes to the building in the succeeding 180 years. It remains a place…

Tayport Episcopal Church was established in the 1890s. The church is dedicated to St Margaret of Scotland and was designed by Major Thomas Martin Cappon, who worked on a number of churches in North-East Fife. The church has a late nineteenth-century…

The Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea opened in 1939. The building was designed by the notable architect Reginald Fairlie – a comitted Catholic who had been born in Fife. Fairlie designed many significant buildings of the…

Tayport Parish Church on Queen Street was built in the 1840s for a Free Church congregation. It has an impressive Victorian Gothic frontage. Following the union of the United Free Church with the established church in 1929, the congregation became…

Now a community Hall.

Converted to residential.

Permanently closed/derelict.

Current use: residential.