Crail Parish Church

The Parish Kirk of Crail was founded in the second half of the twelfth century, though the site appears to have older religious associations. In its first form, it consisted of an unaisled rectangular nave and chancel of Romanesque design.

​In the early thirteenth century, a tower was added at the west end and the nave was re-built with arcades of six gothic arches opening to north and south aisles and a new arch opening to the chancel.​

From an early period, the church belonged to the Cistercian Nunnery of St. Glare in Haddington, from which it was formally disjoined in 1594.

Crail Kirkyard is recognised as a significant burial ground that carries the evidence of how affluent a trading town Crail was in earlier centuries. It has a significant number of mural monuments, 17 in total, whereas most other Kirkyards in Scotland would have maybe one or two.

​​A mural monument is a funeral monument built into a wall, usually that of a kirkyard, sometimes that of a building. They were most common in Scotland between 1400 and 1750 and often had an elaborate mixture of sculpture and carving.

References:

• Crail Church

Address

Marketgate South 5, Crail, United Kingdom

Details

Founded: 13th century
Category: Religious sites in United Kingdom