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Burntisland Parish Kirk
The Kirk's plan and design are unique in Scotland
Burntisland Burgh Chambers
Burntisland docks from the air
Early evidence of human activity in this area has been found in rock carvings on the Binn, thought to be about 4,000 years old. The Roman commander Agricola may have used the natural harbour and set up camp at the nearby Dunearn Hill in AD 83.
The earliest historical record of the town was in the 12th century, when the monks of Dunfermline Abbey owned the harbour and neighbouring lands. The settlement was known as Wester Kinghorn or Little Kinghorn and developed as a fishing hamlet to provide food for the inhabitants of Rossend Castle. The harbour was then sold to James V by the abbots of Dunfermline Abbey in exchange for a parcel of land. The land was granted royal burgh status by James V in 1541. When the status was confirmed in 1586, the settlement gained independence from the barony of Kinghorn and was renamed Burntisland, possibly a nickname from the burning of fishermens' huts on an islet now incorporated into the docks. However, Ross (2007) considers this explanation of the town's name "implausible" and proposes the origin Burnet's Land after a local personal name.
Substantial remains of the original parish church, built in the late 12th century, survive in a churchyard to the north of the old town on Church Street. The building of a town wall to both north and east in the post-Flodden world of late 16th century Scotland, which placed the old church outwith the protective wall, was one of the several reasons that a new church was built in 1592: Burntisland Parish Church, also known as St Columba's. This was the first new parish church built in Scotland after the Reformation. It is a unique shape, square with a central tower upheld on pillars, and lined all round with galleries, to allow the greatest number of people to be reached by the minister's words during the service. The church contains some carved wooden panels.
In 1601, King James VI chose the town as an alternative site for the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. This was when a new translation of the Bible was first discussed, a project which James brought to fruition a decade later in the King James Bible.
The town was part of the lands of Dunfermline belonging to Anne of Denmark. In April 1615 there was a riot in broad daylight against one of her legal officers by a crowd of over a hundred women who took his letters and threw stones at him. The rioters were "of the bangster Amasone kind" led by the wife of the Baillie of Burntisland according to the Chancellor Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline, who supposed the women were acting at the instigation of the townsmen including the minister Mr William Watson.
Burntisland developed as a seaport, being second only to Leith in the Firth of Forth, and shipbuilding became an important industry in the town. James V improved the harbour in 1540 and named it "Our Lady Port". In 1544 it was defended by three artillery blockhouses. An English report mentions a dock at Burntisland called the Newhaven and says a pier and the three blockhouses were to the west, at "Mill Dame". During the war of the Rough Wooing in 1548 the English commander Edward Clinton planned to reconstruct the harbour and pier and their defences, employing a military engineer. In 1559, the town came under French occupation when Scottish Protestant leaders opposed the Catholic Mary of Guise. The occupation ended with the arrival of an English fleet in 1560, prompting the occupiers to retreat by land, back to Leith. The harbour at this time was dry at low-tide and ships lay in the "ooze" or mud.
In 1622 a leaking Spanish ship entered the harbour and promptly sank. The crew said they were whalers, and they had whaling equipment, but the town baillies were suspicious and imprisoned the officers in the tolbooth and put the rest under house arrest under suspicion of piracy. The lawyer Thomas Hamilton arranged their release, arguing they had committed no crime and there was peace with Spain at the time. The town also became a major embarkation point for Scottish soldiers on their way to fight in the Thirty Years War, in October 1627 the Burgh Council complained to the Scottish Privy Council about the conduct of these troops. In 1633 a barge, the Blessing of Burntisland, carrying Charles I and his entourage's baggage from Burntisland to Leith sank with the loss of Charles' treasure.
In 1638, the town like much of the country rallied behind the cause of the National Covenant in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The town with its good harbour became a magazine and supply depot for the Army of the Covenant.
Burntisland was held by the Jacobite army for over two months during the rising known as the Fifteen. The Jacobites first of all raided the port on 2 October 1715, capturing several hundred weapons, then occupied it on 9 October.
In September 1844 a new pier was completed to form a ferry link to the new harbour at Granton, Edinburgh. It was built by local builder Peter Penny (1803-1866). Burntisland Burgh Chambers was designed by John Henderson and completed in 1846.
Burntisland became an important port for the local herring and coal industries, and in 1847 the Edinburgh and Northern Railway opened from Burntisland north to Lindores and Cupar. By 1850 the world's first roll-on/roll-off rail ferry service was crossing the Firth of Forth between Burntisland and Granton, enabling goods wagons to travel between Edinburgh and Dundee without the need for unloading and re-loading at the ferries. (Passengers however had to disembark and use separate passenger ferries). This operated until 1890 when the Forth Bridge opened.
The Burntisland Shipbuilding Company at Burntisland West Dock was founded in 1918 as an emergency shipyard for the First World War, specialising in cargo ships.
In 1929 the yard introduced the "Burntisland Economy" steamship, which was designed to maximise fuel economy. The popularity of this design helped the yard to survive the Great Depression. In the Second World War the yard continued to concentrate on merchant ships but also built three Loch class frigates: HMS Loch Killin (K391), HMS Loch Fyne (K429) and HMS Loch Glendhu (K619). By 1961 the shipyard had 1,000 workers but in 1968 the company got into financial difficulties. The shipyard closed in 1969 and was sold to Robb Caledon of Leith.
Burntisland Docks, 2011
Robb Caledon eventually secured orders to for the yard to build modules for the North Sea oil and natural gas industry, and formed its Burntisland Engineering Fabricators (BEF) subsidiary to manage this work. Towards the end of the 1970s orders declined, in 1978 Robb Caledon was nationalised as part of British Shipbuilders and in 1979 Burntisland yard was closed. In 1990 under new owners Burntisland West Dock resumed the production of major offshore oil and gas fabrications. Industry related to North Sea oil remains important for the town. In 2001 a management buyout took over the yard as Burntisland Fabrications or BiFab. BiFab describes itself as the only major fabricator continuing in production in Scotland since 2005.
A plant for the refining of alumina was opened by Alcan early in the 20th century and closed in 2002, the land now used for housing.
