Culross
Culross,
(locally pronounced Coo-rus), is situated on a hillside sloping
gently to the River Forth, its placid old-world aspect is
in keeping with its great antiquity. Here St Serf carried
on his missionary labors, and founded a church and cemetery,
and here he died and was buried. For centuries the townsfolk
used to celebrate his day (July Ist) by walking in procession
bearing green boughs. Kentigern, the apostle to Cumbria and
first bishop of Glasgow, was born at Culross, his mother having
been driven ashore during a tempest, and was adopted by St
Serf as his son.
These
religious associations, coupled with the fertility of the
soil, led to the founding of a Cistercian abbey in 1217. Of
this structure the only remains are the western tower and
the choir, which, greatly altered as well as repaired early
in the 19th century, now forms the parish church. It is supposed
that a chapel of which some traces exist in the east end of
the town was dedicated to Kentigern. James VI. made Culross
a royal burgh in 1588. In 1808 there was discovered in the
abbey church, embalmed in a silver casket, still preserved
there, bearing, his name and arms, the heart of Edward, Lord
Bruce of Kinloss, who was killed in. August 1613 near Bergen-op-Zoom
in a duel with Sir Edward Sackville, afterwards earl of Dorset.
Robert
Pont (1524-1606), the Reformer, was born at Shirresmiln, or
Shiresmill, a hamlet in Culross parish. Its old industries,
the coal mines, linen manufacture, salt works, and even the
making of iron girdles for the baking of scones have gone,
but its pleasant climate and picturesque strets make it worth
visiting. Dunimarle Castle, a handsome structure on the sea-shore,
adjoins the site of the castle where, according to tradition,
Macbeth slew the wife and children of Macduff.
