North Queensferry, Chapel Place, St James' Chapel

Probably only one building, however, dates even partially from medieval times. This is St James' Chapel figure 5. When it was first founded is uncertain; but it was certainly established before 1320x22, when King Robert I granted the chapel to the abbey of Dunfermline. The phrasing of the charter to Dunfermline Abbey suggests that the chapel had connections with the Ferry Passage. Only a small portion of what was a considerably larger establishment now survives: the associated manse and garden, which stood to the north of the chapel, and related offices have now disappeared beneath more modern developments. The rubble-built west gable and mullioned window give some clues to its original structure; and a blocked entrance may be seen in the north wall. In the eighteenth century, the ground was taken over by the North Queensferry Sailors' Society and converted into a cemetery for their members. A number of eighteenth-century tomb stones still survive. The walls of the chapel were subsequently, in 1752, built up, as the inscription by the entrance testifies.

The buildings to the north of the chapel, in Chapel Place, are entirely modern, and it is unlikely that much would have survived of the manse and garden. The south wall of the chapel, which would have lain within what is now the kirkyard, may however survive, as soil was probably brought in to the graveyard, and this may have effectively sealed and preserved the foundations, at least, of the chapel.

Information from ‘Historic North Queensferry and the Peninsula: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1999).