NO5016 : St Andrews - windows of Blackfriars' Chapel
taken 12 years ago, near to St Andrews, Fife, Scotland
There was once a Dominican monastery on what is now South Street in St Andrews originally called the Dominican Friary of St Mary. The Dominican order were known as the "Blackfriars" because of the colour of their habits (Franciscans were Greyfriars and Carmelites were Whitefriars for similar reasons).
All that is left of the friary is a little chapel which projected from north side of the building facing South Street. The friary's date of foundation is uncertain, possibly as early as the C13th, but it seem more likely to have been later as the first known prior was in 1464.
In 1547 Scotland was under the reign of the 5-year-old Mary, through the regency of the Earl of Arran. He laid siege to St Andrews Castle in March 1547 where Norman Leslie, Younger of Rothes had taken refuge. It was at this time that Leslie's forces severely damaged the friary, though the monks remained in their wrecked building until they were subsequently expelled by Scottish Protestant reformers in 1559.