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Earlsferry, Earlsferry Point, Earlsferry Chapel

Chapel (Period Unassigned), Hospital (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Earlsferry, Earlsferry Point, Earlsferry Chapel

Classification Chapel (Period Unassigned), Hospital (Period Unassigned)

Canmore ID 55108

Site Number NT49NE 3

NGR NT 48091 99392

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/55108

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Fife
  • Parish Elie
  • Former Region Fife
  • Former District North East Fife
  • Former County Fife

Archaeology Notes

NT49NE 3 48091 99392

(NT 4809 9939) Chapel (NR) (rems of)

OS 6" map (1971)

Wood alleges that this ruin is that of a hospital and Easson notes Ardross Hospital, at Earlsferry, the N end of the ferry from North Berwick, for the poor and travellers, founded in 1154 by Duncan, fourth Earl of Fife, and granted by Duncan, fifth Earl, to the nuns of North Berwick (D E Easson 1957). Wood adds that there was probably a chapel and cemetery attached to this hospital as the earth around it is full of human bones.

The RCAHMS consider the ruins to be those of a chapel, oriented E-W and measuring 43'2" x 18'11" externally. Only the E gable (2'9" thick) and the earlier end of the S wall (2' 4 1/2" thick) remain, the other walls being reduced to their foundations. There seems to have been a small enclosure on the N side. A modern panel set in the gable states that the chapel was built by MacDuff, Earl of Fife, in 1093 and repaired in 1830.

W Wood 1887; RCAHMS 1933.

The remains of the chapel are as described. The remains to the N may be those of a building but are too vague to classify.

Visited by OS (JP) 30 May 1974.

Site recorded by Maritime Fife during the Coastal Assessment Survey for Historic Scotland, Kincardine to Fife Ness 1996.

Activities

Field Visit (21 July 1927)

Chapel, Earlsferry.

At the point of the promontory on the western side of Earlsferry are the remains of a featureless oblong building, lying almost due east and west and measuring externally 18 feet 11 inches by 43 feet 2 inches. Only the eastern gable (2 feet 9 inches thick) and the earlier end of the south wall (2 feet 4 ½ inches thick) remain, the other walls being reduced to the foundations. There seems to have been a small enclosure on the northern side. A modern panel inset in the gable states that the chapel was built by Macduff, Earl of Fife, in 1093 and repaired in 1830.

HISTORICAL NOTE. Earlsferry (Passagium Comitis) (1), at the mouth of the Firth of Forth was apparently instituted by an Earl of Fife, as Queensferry in West Lothian was by Queen Margaret. Its port on the south shore was North Berwick, but occasionally Dirleton. As was often the case at important crossings, there was an hospice with a chapel on either side. For such remains at North Berwick, see Inventory, East Lothian, p. 58. There was a high road from Earlsferry to Cupar, which passed between the "place" of Inglistarvit, later known as Scotstarvit (NO31SE 28), and its barns, stables, &c. On this account Alexander Inglis had a licence from James V to remove the road to the east side of his house, making it as wide as it had been before; and this permission was renewed to Sir John Scot of Scotstarvit in 1621 (2). Mr. James Melville crossed "the Ferrie of Northe Berwik" to "the Alie" (Elie) in September 1586, when several travellers and two horses had to use a "mikle coll-bott," badly equipped for the journey (3), which suggests that the ferry was then not much in use. By the end of the 17th century it was apparently quite given up, the regular crossings having been established farther up the Firth (4).

RCAHMS 1933, visited 21 July 1927.

(1) Bain's Calendar of Docts., iv (1303-4), p. 461. (2) Acts Parl. Scot ., iv, p. 679. (3) Autobiography and Diary of Mr. James Melvill (WodrowS ociety), pp. 251-3. (4) Scot. Hist. Rev., ii, p. 29.

Field Visit (1997 - 2001)

Derek Hall managed an Historic Scotland funded project to record medieval hospital sites in Scotland. Gazetteers were produced for each regional council area between 1997 and 2001 with an overall review in 2001.

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