Limekilns Parish Church

Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 22 May 2021

According to those in the know this is a Neo-Classical style church. To me it looks very unchurchlike indeed, more like something you would find in Edinburgh's Newtown - it is very impressive nevertheless. It was built in the 1820s, on the site of an older church built 40 years earlier - presumably this original church was a bit shoddy if it only stood for such a short time! The building is big on pediments - these are the usually triangular stone adornments that appear above doorways, as here. This church takes things to an extra level though by having an enormous 'full-width' pediment at its top. It almost has the effect of turning the whole facade into a doorway with other miniature doorways inside the bigger one. Before the construction of the first church residents of Limekilns and the neighbouring Charlestown had to trek all the way to Dunfermline for their Sunday service. I haven't checked the population of these two villages down the ages, but considering the 1820s rebuilt church had room for over a thousand worshippers it is all rather curious - it is hardly as though Christianity was undergoing a sudden explosion of popularity between these two dates.

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