Register of the Collegiate Church of Crail, Fifeshire. With Historical Remarks

Abstract

Crail is a royal burgh situated on the eastern coast of Fife-shire, near the apex of that peninsula familiarly known as the East Neuk. Anciently written Carrail, Caryl, and Karaite, the name is derived from caer, a fortified place, and ail, a corner. A castle belonging to the Scottish kings occupied the rock which overhangs the present harbour, of which some vestiges remain. This structure was probably of ancient origin. Constantine, King of Scotland, while unsuccessfully contending with invading Norsemen, fell in battle among the rocks at Balcomie near Crail in 877. He may have occupied the castle as a principal seat. To Sir Robert Sibbald, writing in 1710, it appeared as “the ruins of a strong castle.” It was a favourite hunting-seat of David I. in the twelfth century, when he followed the chase in the adjoining territory of Kingsmuir. By a royal charter granted to the collegiate church of Crail, dated 24th November 1526, James V. de-scribes the site of the church as “an ancient borough where sundry princes, his predecessors, had made their residence and dwelling-place, and as he and his successors might do in time to come as reasonable causes and occasions should befall.” These expressions would imply that the castle was inhabitable in the sixteenth century. The royal demesne of Crail was frequently included in the jointure lands of the Scottish queens.