Scheduled Monument
North Queensferry, St James' ChapelSM9806
Status: Designated
Documents
Where documents include maps, the use of this data is subject to terms and conditions (https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/termsandconditions).
The legal document available for download below constitutes the formal designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The additional details provided on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not form part of the designation. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within this additional information.
Summary
- Date Added
- 11/03/2002
- Type
- Ecclesiastical: burial ground, cemetery, graveyard
- Local Authority
- Fife
- Parish
- Inverkeithing
- NGR
- NT 13191 80454
- Coordinates
- 313191, 680454
Description
The monument consists of the remains of a medieval chapel dedicated to St James, extending along the northern edge of a walled churchyard. The west gable, which is pierced by a rectangular two-light window, survives to virtually full height, together with the lower portions of both the north and east walls; the north wall retains traces of a number of openings.
The chapel was established in connection with the ferry across the Forth, though the date of its original foundation is unknown. In 1320x22 Robert I granted the chapel to Dunfermline Abbey, with instructions that it was to be served by two chaplains. These chaplaincies had apparently ceased to be appointed by 1479, when Abbot Henry Creichton of Dunfermline established a new chaplaincy, with provision for a manse to the north of the chapel and two acres of ground, apparently to the west of the village.
After the Reformation the chaplaincy appears to have been regarded as a perquisite that could be granted out, and although a vicarage was established in 1582 this was evidently a sinecure.
The chapel is traditionally said to be have been destroyed by Cromwell's troops after the battle of Inverkeithing in 1651. In the eighteenth century the remains of the chapel and the burial ground passed to the North Queensferry Sailors' Society, who built a wall around it. This work is commemorated in a tablet inscribed THIS IS DONE BY / THE SAILERS IN / NORTH FERRIE / 17 52.
The area to be scheduled is irregular in plan, following the line of the eighteenth-century wall around the burial ground, measuring a maximum of about 17.5m E-W by about 20m N-S, as marked in red on the accompanying plan. Any residual burial rights are excluded from the scheduling.
References
Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation
About Scheduled Monuments
Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.
We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.
Scheduling is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for monuments and archaeological sites of national importance as set out in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
We schedule sites and monuments that are found to be of national importance using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)
Scheduled monument records provide an indication of the national importance of the
scheduled monument which has been identified by the description and map. The description and map (see ‘legal documents’ above) showing the scheduled area is the designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The statement of national importance and additional information provided are supplementary and provided for general information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within the statement of national importance or additional information. These records are not definitive historical or archaeological accounts or a complete description of the monument(s).
The format of scheduled monument records has changed over time. Earlier records will usually be brief. Some information will not have been recorded and the map will not be to current standards. Even if what is described and what is mapped has changed, the monument is still scheduled.
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