Auld Kirkcaldy Kirks in spring

Leaping into spring with some great Scottish architecture and history from the Kingdom of Fife!

I love history and I love architecture, and when the sun is shining at the end of winter and beginning of spring there is no better chance to capture the Auld Kirk's surroundings in Kirkcaldy, Scotland.

The first Kirk or church we are looking at is situated on the side of Kirk Wynd.

Kirk being the Scottish for church and Wynd being the Scottish for an alley or narrow street.

Fun fact : the name a wynd actually derives from the Old Norse venda meaning to turn. The wynd would turn off the main street so you knew it was curved!

It is up hill, which means getting to it is via steps, and you can see the Kirk through the archway.

Here we see the steps down to Kirk Wynd and we are not standing on the top of the steps.

Looking at the side of the magnificent Auld Kirk.

It is still a functioning church, and it has now been renovated. The last time I took pictures there was scaffolding and a screen around the church.

Kirkcaldy Old Kirk is the site of the first Christian worship in Kirkcaldy after the Celtic missionaries brought the faith here in the 5th century.

Courtesy of the Kirkcaldy Old Kirk Heritage Group.

I love the clock tower as you can see it from many directions, and it dates back to the 15th century.

I love the fact it is rectangular in shape as opposed to cylindrical. That is just me though .. or is it!

We shall wander round the outside and look at the buildings and some graves.

I do love info pictorials to give you an idea of what history you are looking at!

It gives you details of buildings that are now long gone, together with notable celebrities.

Adam Smith was baptised here and I am sure you know of him, the extraordinary economist and Wealth of Nations author.

The door was closed unfortunately.

I find graveyards and cemeteries fascinating.

I remember the first time Mrs T saw people eating their lunch in the sun in a graveyard quite strange.

Although we are looking around the Auld Kirk, we do see the tall spire of another church a few yards away.

Back in the days when there were churches galore it was common to see two three and even four churchs in close proximity.

Stained Glass windows and grills

One thing of beauty around churches are the stained glass windows.

But they get vandalised and they are hard / expensive to repair.

So the solution to stop neds breaking them is cover them with wire meshes or screens.

I don't know if these portakabin buildings are a left over from the renovation works or if they are some sort of church office.

They do mar the church view though.

Black and white view of St Bryce Kirk on Kirk Wynd

It came out quite good, what do you think?

Around the back amongst the gravestones they had another info block, artistically framed to be like a gravestone.

Those with money would have fancier gravestones and even monuments.

The rear of the church looks so different without the view of the old tower.

You also see the round window that is so common in churches.

I know it is a bit morbid to like gravestones...

... but don't you like the angle of this one, it give off Halloween vibes!

One other wonderful thing about this time of year is that the trees are naked, they have no leaves and so don't hide objects behind them.

This makes for gorgeous shots with the blue sky and white clouds.

I thought I would include this family gravestone that dates back to the 1700s...

The history is amazing imagine all the people that have stood where we are looking over the years...

There we have it, our time to leave. I must say they have given the old place a great clean and you would not think it is centuries old.

I mentioned bare naked trees, well as we leave to get back to Kirk Wynd by the other set of steps we pass these tall trees which make for another final shot!

View from the gardens of St Bryce Kirk

Cheers everyone!

Do you wander round graveyards or look at old churches? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for visiting and I hope you managed to get out for a walk this week.