First Roman Church
Local History
Gildebride, Earl of Angus, bequeathed certain lands and fishings at Port-on-Craig to the abbey of Arbroath, for the purpose of founding a hospital at Port-on-Craig. Some writers have said that this was never built, thinking, I presume, that having been given to Arbroath it would have been built in Forfarshire. This reasoning, however, does not hold good, because we find grants made to Abbeys in different counties; as an example, the lands of Barry to the Abbey of Balmerino.
This building was erected near Port-on-Craig in the field to the south-west of the Lovers’ Loan, where, in 1886, a portion of the foundations were laid bare by the workmen while looking for a suitable site for a [new] cemetery for the Parish. Three pits were sunk in this field, one of which laid bare a portion of the building referred to, which was situated 20 yards north from the fence at the corner of the small wood and 37 yards from the tree at the east corner of the wood.
Being anxious to revive our memory, we went while the field was in stubble last autumn (1923), armed with an iron rod, and probing the soil for about five minutes we were able to locate the foundations 20 inches beneath the surface. This was the first religious house in or near Ferry-Port-on-Craig. Its existence was known to the late Admiral Dougall as the site of the first stronghold in this quarter of the Church of Rome.
sources:
- History of Tayport, by Sir James Scott, Kt. (at the age of 87), printed in Cupar by J. & G. Innes Ltd., 1927.