Blackfriars Chapel, St Andrews

On a small green on busy South Street in St Andrews stands the roofless five-sided apse of a chapel added to the Dominican friary church in 1525, all that survives of the Blackfriars of St Andrews. The Dominicans, named for their black robes, were a preaching and teaching order closely linked with universities. A friary was set up here about 1464, and money left in 1514 by William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen and founder of King's College, paid for its rebuilding. Short of room, the friars were allowed to build the chapel out into the street. Its large windows have looping tracery that shows Dutch influence, and its stone vault carried carved bosses of Christ's Passion and the Hepburn arms. In June 1559 Protestant reformers destroyed the friary and expelled the friars; it stood on the lawns in front of Madras College. Reviewers say it is a quick free stop with an information board, opposite the Bell Street junction and about 600 metres from the cathedral and castle.