Situated on Chapel Place in the centre of North Queensferry (Fife), St. James' Chapel is a Mediaeval place of worship dedicated to the patron saint of pilgrims, acknowledging those who crossed the Firth of Forth here to visit the shrines of St. Andrew at St. Andrews and St. Margaret at Dunfermline. Today it is a scheduled ancient monument.
This was gifted to Dunfermline Abbey around 1320 by Robert the Bruce (1274 - 1329) with instructions that it should be served by two chaplains. The chapel was re-established by Abbot Henry Creighton of Dunfermline in 1479 and rebuilt. Then associated with a manse and larger area of land, all that remains today are the western gable with a partially-blocked mullioned window and part of the north wall, defining the northwestern corner of a small graveyard. The chapel was destroyed by Cromwell's troops after the Battle of Inverkeithing in 1651. The chapel interior and adjacent plot became the village graveyard, having passed in the 18th C. to the North Queensferry Sailors' Society, a friendly society which provided for the decent burial of villagers. They built a wall around the site and this work is commemorated in a tablet inscribed THIS IS DONE BY / THE SAILERS IN / NORTH FERRIE / 1752. Graves date from the 18th and 19th C.
