the Kirk Session of St. Andrews said that it ‘appears’ that Strathkinness School

was one of several schools established at that time, but there is no evidence that

this was so.

The first mention of a school in Strathkinness was in 1650, and in 1651

the schoolmaster was named as David Hay, who was there for at least one year.

In 1654 William Tough was appointed schoolmaster and in 1658 David

Arbuthnott was referred to as a teacher in Strathkinness. It was not uncommon

for there to be a long gap between the departure of one teacher and

the appointment of another. Many were filling in time waiting for a place as

a minister. At the time of vacancies in Strathkinness the children probably

went to Kincaple where there was a more or less continuous record of schools

between 1647 and 1710.

There is no direct evidence of what these early schools in Strathkinness

were like, but from records of schools in other parishes in Fife of that time,

it can be deduced that the buildings were very poor affairs. Schoolmasters

of an even later period lived in a but and ben, and had a pretty meagre exis-

tence. The school would have been no more than one or possibly two rooms

with children ranging in age from five to fifteen. There were times during

the winter when the roads, often no more than tracks, were impassable. Even

as late as the 1 920s there were many, many days when children could not get

to school. In addition, the long dark days and inadequate lighting in school

meant that school was often cut short in the winter months.

In the above-mentioned petition from Kincaple one of the reasons given

4or wanting their own school was ‘although there were forty children fit for

school (i.e. of school age), very few of them are fit to go to Strathkinness in

winter thro’ the storm and only about one half in the summer season when we

are obliged by our circumstances to employ them in herding’. The Kirk

Session told the parents, while sympathising with their wishes, that they could

not afford to give them a school as they did not have enough money

‘to support the numerous poor’. They added that when there had been more

than one school in the area the schoolmasters did not earn enough in fees for

their subsistence and they were obliged to supplement their incomes with

ther work which the Session thought was detrimental to the pupils. However,

if the residents of Kincaple could ‘out of their own means’ find a teacher who

.vould be acceptable to the Kirk Session they would employ him for one year.

Nithin a week they had found Mr. John Angus, who proved acceptable.

In 1659 Helen Hay and James Yule applied to teach in Strathkinness,

and although the decision on these applications is not recorded, in 1664

Helen Hay schoolmistress who lived in the parish is given a testimonial’.

n the same year Isobel Hay who had taught in Kincaple School for about

57