Newburn, Old Parish Church And Churchyard

Heritage listing

Date Added 12/12/2001 Type Ecclesiastical: church Local Authority Fife Parish Newburn NGR NO 45301 03522 Coordinates 345301, 703522 — The monument consists of the shell of the medieval parish church of Newburn, with later additions and modifications, together with the surrounding churchyard. A church was in existence here by the second quarter of the twelfth century, when it was confirmed to Dunfermline Abbey by the Bishop of St Andrews, having been granted to the abbey a short time previously by David I. A dedication by Bishop David de Bernham is recorded in 1243, though this was probably a conditional dedication unrelated to any building operations. In its final state the church appears to have been a two-cell structure, with a rectangular chancel of 3.8m internal width, and a rectangular nave of 4.5m internal width; the overall internal length is 16.8m. There are signs of a chancel arch having been removed. The main entrance is a round-headed doorway towards the W end of the S wall, and there are traces of a number of doorways and windows of various dates along the S face of both nave and chancel. The absence of medieval windows in the E and W gable walls, together with the scarcement at the height of the eaves of the side walls, indicates a late medieval date for the church in its existing state. The walls and gables are largely complete to the wall-head. Around the site of the principal altar, at the E end of the chancel, are a number of liturgical fixtures. There is part of an arched piscina in the S wall, now cut by the damaged jamb of a blocked window. In the N wall is a sacrament house with a moulded pointed arch above a rectangular aumbry. There are two rectangular aumbries in the E wall, which may be medieval in origin. Various changes were made to adapt the

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.