The Leng Memorial Chapel is a pretty and very striking wee kirk enjoying a prominent spot in the north Fife countryside. Perched atop Cowbakie Hill, near Newport-on-Tay, it dates from the last years of the 19th century and takes its 13th century French Gothic architectural style straight from the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, albeit on a much smaller scale. Indeed, it is very much Le Sainte Chapelle in miniature.
Due to its elevated position, overseeing all that surrounds it, the chapel is an obvious local landmark, visible to those driving south on the A914 road to St Andrews and it is partcularly impressive at night, thanks to floodlighting. Few, however, pull off the main thoroughfare to view it up close, which is a shame as it is a fascinatingly picturesque and peaceful place to visit.
The chapel itself is locked but, from the old gatehouse below, you can wander up through Vicarsfield Cemetery and potter around the building, reading various inscriptions set into the wall or just sit a while in the tiny cloister. The building is of sandstone with a copper roof, green in parts, and features sweeping buttresses on the western elevation and a towering octagonal spire.
Commissioned by Dundee newspaper editor and publisher Sir John Leng as a memorial to his first wife Emily, the first person to be interred in Vicarsfield Cemetery, and designed by local architect Thomas Cappon, the chapel was built between 1895 and 1897 and features a vaulted interior faced with cream Normandy stone. It also served as a tribute to his second wife Mary and Leng himself was buried here when he died in 1906. The Leng burials flank the west wall.
Arriving in Dundee from Hull in 1851, Leng was editor and publisher of the popular Dundee Advertiser newspaper (later The Courier & Advertiser and now The Courier) and founded the city’s Evening Telegraph newspaper and the People’s Friend periodical, all of which remain in print under the ownership of DC Thomson & Co Ltd.
Both the chapel and gate lodge, which was also designed by Cappon, who was born across the River Tay in Monifieth, are listed buildings. While the chapel does not host regular religious services, it can be hired for weddings, christenings, etc, and is occassionally open to the public on Doors Open Days.
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