Ruin, Chapel Garden, West Wemyss is a Grade B listed building in the Fife local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 11 December 1972. Ruin, sea wall, burial enclosure, house.

Ruin, Chapel Garden, West Wemyss

WRENN ID
over-attic-gold
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
Fife
Constituency
Glenrothes and Mid Fife MP: Richard Baker (Lab)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
11 December 1972
Type
Ruin, sea wall, burial enclosure, house
OS grid reference
NT 319 946
Coordinates
56.13976, -3.09705
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The ruin of a house located in Chapel Garden, West Wemyss, dates back to the 16th century. It consists of the remains of a four-storey and garret rectangular-plan structure featuring a round stair tower. This tower has a door and a small window on the southeast side, along with an arrowslit and a corbelled-out square section at the garret, topped with a gabled crow-stepped gable and a small window. The walls are made of coursed and some squared rubble, with a noticeable band course, although the west wall is severely eroded.

Also from the 16th century, the sea wall and towers include a flat-coped rubble wall with a bastion and a tall two-stage tower to the west, a former dovecot to the east, and a series of grilled arches flanking the gateway. The west tower features a tall first stage with a small opening near the ground on the east side leading to a low chamber and a window on the south side. A band course separates this from the second stage, which has windows on the east side and a corbel course below the turret roof. The east tower, the former dovecot, has a small bipartite window close to the eaves beneath a corbel course and turret roof. The wall with the bastion consists of a rubble wall to the west between the west tower and the bastion, and another rubble wall to the east, which is topped by a series of grilled arches flanking a pedestrian gateway with a stepped cope.

The Wemyss burial enclosure features square-plan ashlar gatepiers that flank decorative wrought-iron gates designed by Robert Lorimer, along with an inset stone dated 1670. A modern wall with sculptured panels surrounds the entrance, and a 17th-century sundial is mounted on the southwest pier for preservation. An upright, re-used headstone made of Burntisland stone marks the communal grave of the Wemyss family, whose remains were transferred from St Mary's-by-the-Sea in East Wemyss. Later individual graves are marked with simple crosses made of Carrera marble.

Additionally, there is a small, single-storey house from the early 19th century, which has a three-bay rectangular plan and a central stack, with bowed bays on the southeast and southwest sides. The house is harled with painted margins and features base and eaves courses. The south (principal) elevation is symmetrical, with a two-leaf, part-glazed timber door and a five-pane fanlight at the centre bay, flanked by wide tripartite windows. The windows have an 8- and 12-pane glazing pattern in timber sash and case style, and the roof is covered with grey slates. The coped ashlar stack has cans, and the eaves are deeply overhanging.

Local climate

Ruin, Chapel Garden, West Wemyss receives an average of 910 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 68% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 62% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 32 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 59% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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