Kirk o' Field

The Collegiate Church of St Mary in the Fields (commonly known as Kirk o' Field) was a pre-Reformation collegiate church in Edinburgh, Scotland. Likely founded in the 13th century and secularised at the Reformation, the church's site is now covered by Old College.

The Augustinian monks of Holyrood Abbey held superiority over the church and likely founded it as a centre of education in the 13th century. The church appears to have been raised to collegiate status in the early 16th century. Around this time, erection of the Flodden Wall brought the church just within the bounds of the city and overlooking the Potterow Port, which was also known as the Kirk o' Field Port. After the church was secularised at the Reformation, the town council acquired its land and provostry. The area became the first site of the town's college: later, the University of Edinburgh. The church is also notable for its association with the murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, which took place in the vicinity in 1567.

Contemporary illustrations show the church as possessing a saddle-roofed tower. The most detailed illustration, from 1567, also shows a tall choir and lower nave and transept. The church's ruins were removed in the early 17th century. The site is now covered by Old College. Excavations of Old College quadrangle in 2010 found remains that may be associated with the church.

In 1969 a church on The Pleasance, Edinburgh, adopted the name Kirk o' Field Parish Church, it is now the Greyfriars Charteris Centre.

The church is first recorded in Bagimond's Roll of around 1275. It was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary of Consolation and may have been established around the same time as the neighbouring church of the Blackfriars, which was founded in 1230. A document of 1428 refers to St Mary's as a chapel but it is described as a church in a document of 1489. The church belonged to the Augustinian monks of Holyrood Abbey and may have been founded by them for educational purposes.

St Mary's appears to have been raised to the status of a collegiate church early in the 16th century. References are made to the prebendaries and the master of the church in separate documents of 1511 with a further mention of the provost and prebendaries in a text of 1512. In litigation between Holyrood Abbey and the church in 1523, it is stated that the abbey had superiority of the church and had raised it to the status of a collegiate church. David Vocat, noted as a chaplain of the church in 1509 and as its provost in 1527 (albeit, the source for the latter is ambiguous), supported the erection of an altar in the church in 1518 and the creation of four prebendaries in 1528. These references may suggest he was also the founder of the collegiate church.

The church's name is recorded in Latin as name as Ecclesia Sanctae Mariae in Campis: "the church of St Mary in the Fields. "The Fields" refers to the fact that the church was initially outside the town wall. The church possessed a successful garden that stretched down to the Cowgate, incorporating the area now represented by Old College, Infirmary Street, High School Yards. From this garden, James IV obtained the seeds to plant his "new garden" at Stirling Castle.

With the construction of the Flodden Wall between 1513 and 1515, the church was brought within the burgh's boundaries. The south wall of the church's grounds was strengthened to create the new wall. The wall at the church was rebuilt in 1567. The church's tower commanded the view over the southern entry to the town at Potterrow Port, which was also known as the Kirk o' Field Port. The church gave its name to the wynd now known as College Wynd. Initially, it was known as the Wynd of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Field.