Tour Scotland Photograph Ruins Culross Abbey

Tour Scotland Photograph of the ruins of Culross Abbey in Culross, Fife, Scotland. The abbey was founded in 1217 by Malcolm I, Mormaer or Earl of Fife, and was first colonised by monks from Kinloss Abbey. Culross may have been chosen to establish an abbey because this was the birth place of Saint Mungo. It is evident that the abbey was built over the earlier Pictish church supposedly founded by Saint Serf in the 6th century, as witnessed by the presence in the ruined Cistercian church of early medieval carved stones and from a ninth-century reference to a church of St Serf at Culross. The original 13th century abbey was cruciform in plan, without aisles. By the late 15th century the lay brothers had left, and the abbey community consisted of only choir monks. The western half of the abbey was therefore abandoned, and the nave was demolished around 1500. In 1633 the east choir of the abbey was taken over for use as a parish church, while the adjoining buildings show above fell into decay.



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