Church and Parish

The Church at Falkland

Falkland is an ancient Royal Burgh, and there is evidence that an early church was situated some two miles to the west of the Burgh, at Kilgour, under the slopes of the East Lomond hill, a church there having been consecrated by David de Bernham, bishop of St Andrews in 1243.  It is thought that a church was built on the present site after the Reformation and that the present building is the third to occupy the site.  By 1845, it was considered that the then building reflected little credit on the Parish and it was replaced by the present building at a cost of £7,000, the gift of Onesiphorus Tyndall Bruce,who by marriage had become Keeper of the Palace of Falkland, and his wife Margaret.

The church at Freuchie

The village of Freuchie was served by the parish church at Falkland until a Chapel of Ease was built there in 1875 at a cost of £1,100.  Prior to that and following the Disruption of 1843 a congregation had been formed in the village, which adhered to the United Presbyterian Church and later the United Free Church before eventually becoming a congregation of the Church of Scotland in the Union of 1929.  Known as the Scott memorial Church, its congregation and that of the West Church still worshipped separately for a good number of years before being united to form Freuchie Parish Church.

The Parish Church

In every parish in Scotland an act of worship takes place every Sunday and there is a sense in which the parish church provides the place where anyone and everyone can meet to worship God.  As the Church of Scotland web site has it, 'Worship within the Church of Scotland is for everybody, regardless of age, nationality, status or ability.'  That means that there is an open invitation to everone to worship in their parish church, any and every Sunday! 

Like every church that belongs to the Church of Scotland, the churches at Falkland and Freuchie serve a Parish and have the responsibility of offering the ordinances of religion to everyone who lives within their parish bounds.  This means at the very least that everyone who lives within these parishes without exception might ask the minister to conduct wedding and funeral services.  If you require the minister's services you only have to ask.