OS1/13/80/33

Continued entries/extra info

33 Parish of St. Monans

[Quotations]
"To return to the church itself after this view of the temporalities of the benifice, it is said I believe on good traditional authority to have been built about the fortieth year of David II's [The Second's] Reign (1369) His father Robert I [The First] had died 1329. Tradition says that David and his queen narrowly escaping shipwreck on the "Stormy Frith" had found a landing on the shore hard by St. Monan's and that as an expression of gratitude for their deliverance they had caused to be erected a chapel to St. Monan the tutelary Saint of the place. By David's Charter. dated Edinburgh he grants to this chapel the lands of Easter Birney in Fife and some lands in the Sheriffdom of Edinburgh. James III [The Third] gave it to the Black friars. It had afterwards a convent at Cupar annexed to it and both it and the convent were annexed by James V [The Fifth] to a convent at St. Andrews.

"The condition which this well known fabric exhibited ten years ago had been its condition for ages. Situated at the west end of St. Monan's and separated from it by a small brook and within 50 yards of what is shown as St. Monan's Cell, it exhibitted a beautiful specimen of Gothic architecture in the form of a cross with a steeple of hewn stone in the centre, square so far and terminating in a spire of eight sides. There remained no vestige of building from the steeple westward but to the north and the south of it were to be seen the unroofed remains of a transept or wings at right angles to the body of the fabric. The main part of the building extending eastward from the spire with vaulted roof as well described by my predecessors and in Sibbald was used as above mentioned as the parish church. However interesting to the antiquarian, it was most uncomfortable a place of worship; damp, cold, its walls covered with green mould and presenting altogether an aspect of chilling desolation. In 1772, the late incumbent, in respect of its uncomfortable and ruinous condition, raised a process for repairs before the presbytery, and obtained a decret against the heritors for repairs extensive and substantial."

Stat. Acct. [Statistical Account] of Fifeshire. page 350