Crail, Marketgate, Churchyard. Bailie Patrick Hunter and Bailie George Moncrieff of Sauchope tombstone.

Description Crail, Marketgate, Churchyard. Bailie Patrick Hunter and Bailie George Moncrieff of Sauchope tombstone.

Date c. 1890

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 739330

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of F 1963

Scope and Content Mural Monuments to Bailie Patrick Hunter and Bailie George Moncreiffe of Sauchope, Crail Parish Churchyard, Crail, Fife The old tree-lined churchyard of Crail Parish Church contains an important collection of mural monuments dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. The Scottish photographer, Erskine Beveridge, made a detailed photographic record of the mural tombs and their epitaphs on a visit to the churchyard c.1890. These monuments both lie in the west wall of the churchyard, and commemorate two former bailies (municipal officers and magistrates) of the town. The memorial to Patrick Hunter (left), who died in 1649, is in three stages, with Ionic pilasters flanking the central section. The memorial to George Moncreiffe of Sauchope (right), who died in 1707, is the largest of the mural monuments in the churchyard. It is carved in orange stone with Ionic pilasters flanking a large inscribed tablet, and is topped by a broken pediment. From the early 17th century, the most prestigious place for burial (burial inside churches having been forbidden after the Reformation) was in a handsome tomb, enclosure or vault in the walls of the churchyard. In Crail churchyard, the west wall contains ten such mural monuments, ranging from 1613 to 1723, eight of which commemorate former bailes of the town. This section of wall has been nicknamed, the Westminster Abbey of Crail. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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