Parish Church and the history of the Scottish Church

The Parish Church at the foot of Craighall Road, built in 1836, is a minute’s walk from the harbour. It continues to have a thriving congregation of all ages from the village and its surrounds which has echoes of the congregation of fisher folk of the nineteenth century. Newhaven was a microcosm of the ‘Disruption’ in the Church of Scotland of 1843 in which 450 ministers seceded to form a new denomination (the Free Church of Scotland) over issues of State control and patronage to which they objected. One of these, The Rev. James Fairbairn, was the minister of Newhaven Parish Church, much loved by his parishioners whom he supported in practical and spiritual ways, and many followed him to the new denomination. He died in 1879.