Kirkyard
The Kirkyard is believed to have been in use since the construction of the Kirk, although it does not appear in record until 1501 It was closed for new burials in 1923, and closed fully in 1927.
You can find out more about the monuments below and on Crail Preservation Society's website.
Crail Kirkyard is home to a nationally significant collection of mural monuments. Mural Monuments are elaborately carved stone monuments that mark the graves of prominent members of the burgh. There are 16 located in Crail Kirkyard, commemorating 'Bailies (magistrates), merchants and local landowners between 1598 and 1723.
'The majority of the Mural Monuments in the Kirkyard commemorate prominent Bailies of the burgh. Bailies were local magistrates and town councillors, who oversaw the running of Crail. Many of these men were also wealthy merchants. The monuments undoubtedly act as much as a display of wealth and power, as they do commemoration of those buried beneath them.
Only two of the monuments are dedicated to local landowning families (the Lindsays of Wormiston, monument 16, and Lumsden of Airdrie, monument 11). The majority of the gentry in the burgh were traditionally buried within the choir of the kirk. Following the Scottish Reformation, this practice was widely discouraged by 'church authorities. However, the Crail Kirk Session reported that, by 1611, 'the abuse of burial in the kirk was again creeping in'.
Interestingly, no monuments were constructed between 1654 and 1707. Across kirkyards in Fife, and particularly jn the East Neuk, there are few headstones that survive from the 17th and 18th ,centuries. In Crail, this absence corresponds to the period of hardest financial struggle in the burgh. It also coincides with the return to Episcopalian traditions following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. Evidence suggests that during this period, those who could afford it were once more buried within the Kirk itself.
Crail's Mural Monuments reflect the changing fashions for funeral monuments across Scotland. The earliest monuments, dating between 1613 and 1660 (3, 4, and 5) are simple mural tablets. The 'later group (6, 8, 9, 10, and 14) all feature a recessed central panel, similar to those in Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh, though later in date. The final group, constructed in the early 18th century, all reflect the elite taste for neoclassical architecture (1, 7, 12, 16). Monuments 11 and 13, however, are entirely unique designs, 'without parallels in Scotland.
The funeral monuments of Crail's Kirkyard thus pay tribute not only to its long-lost residents, but to its place in Scottish history. Though many are today severely ravaged by the passage of time, they still provide echoes of the wealth and importance that once belonged to this historic town.
