St Athernase Church, Leuchars

About

St Athernase Church is a Romanesque church located in Leuchars, Fife, Scotland. It is a Category A listed building and remains in use as a Church of Scotland parish church. The chancel and half-round apse date from the 12th century with the exterior featuring blind arcades with typical Norman arches.

The church was granted by Ness son of William, Lord of Leuchars, to the canons of St Andrews in 1185. Around 1700 a belfry was added, and in 1858 restoration was carried out to the nave. The church is open to the public in summer, at other times by arrangement.

Relics preserved inside include part of a 9th-century cross-slab found near the village (closely comparable to the large collection at St Andrews Cathedral), and three elaborate 16th century memorial stones of the Bruces of Earlshall, the local lairds. One of the latter shows a full length figure of a woman, naïve in execution, but valuable in documenting contemporary dress. The oft-mentioned dedication of the medieval church of Leuchars to St Athernase is actually an error.

It arises from a nineteenth-century misreading of a list of church dedications in the Register of St Andrews Priory, a medieval manuscript now in the National...