Kinkell, Fife
Coordinates: 56°19′29″N 2°45′17″W / 56.324652°N 2.754693°W
Kinkell was an estate to the east of St Andrews in Scotland. In the Middle Ages it was the site of a chapel, hospital, dovecote and a castle or manor house. The castle was an important location for conventicles in the period following the restoration of the House of Stuart. Little trace of the buildings remain, but the name is preserved in Kinkell Ness, Kinkell Braes, Kinkell Byre, Kinkell Farm and so on. The braes are now occupied by modern structures such as a caravan park, waste treatment plant, farm and golf course.
Kinkell Braes stretch eastward from St Andrews along the North Sea coast. The rocks are jumbled and convoluted, particularly the great gaunt mass of grey sandstone at the foot of the cliff called the Maiden Rock. Kinkell Cave is of considerable size, extending into the Brae, roofed by a smooth mass of rock that reaches up at an acute angle from the east side of the floor. It may have been used as a stronghold at times.
Past the headland named Kinkell Ness there is a small natural harbour or creek called Kinkell Harbour that could be used as a place of refuge from the southeast gales. The castle stood on the brae above this harbour. The "Rock and Spindle" stands beside the harbour. This is an eroded volcanic plug with a tall stack and with a structure resembling a spinning wheel at its base, made from twisted basalt columns.
The name was said to derive from the Chapel of St Anna which was built by Kellach, the Bishop of St Andrews, around 875 AD. The Culdee, or Céli Dé, an ascetic Christian community, had a chapter at Cennrighmonaidh, or Kilrymont monastery, in St Andrews, and served in the Church of St Mary on the Rock. The Céli Dé held the lands of Kinkell in the 1170s.St Nicholas Hospital lay on the lands of Kinkell. The house functioned as a home for lepers until at least March 1438. The sixteenth-century Book of Assumptions said the Provost of St Mary's held the lands of Kinkell at the time of writing.
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