Craill
Crail
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 Crail
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| Crail shown within Fife | |
| Population | 1,639 |
| OS grid reference | NO613078 |
| Council area | |
| Lieutenancy area | |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | ANSTRUTHER. |
| Postcode district | KY10 |
| Dialling code | 01333 |
| Police | Scottish |
| Fire | Scottish |
| Ambulance | Scottish |
| EU Parliament | Scotland |
| UK Parliament | |
| Scottish Parliament | |
Crail (
listen ); Scottish Gaelic: Cathair Aile) is a former royal burgh, parish and community council area (named Royal Burgh of Crail and District) in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland.
The civil parish has a population of 1,812 (in 2011).
Crail probably dates from at least as far back as the Pictish period, as the place-name includes the Pictish/Brythonic element caer, 'fort', and there is a Dark Age cross-slab preserved in the parish kirk, itself dedicated to the early holy man St. Maelrubha.
Crail became a Royal Burgh in the 1178.Robert the Bruce granted permission to hold markets on a Sunday, in the Marketgait, where the Mercat Cross now stands in Crail. This practice was still continuing in the 16th century, causing concern in the freshly puritanical circles of Edinburgh such that John Knox was moved to deliver a sermon in Crail Parish Church, damning the fishermen of the East Neuk for working on a Sunday. Despite the protests, the markets continued and were amongst the largest in Europe for their time.
James V (the father of Mary Queen of Scots) sent for his wife, Mary of Guise, whom he had recently married by proxy in Paris, and she landed in Crail in June 1538. According to Antonia Fraser, "Accompanied by a navy of ships under Lord Maxwell, and 2,000 lords and barons whom her new husband had sent from Scotland to fetch her away, Queen Mary landed at Crail in Fife on 10 June 1538, just over a year since the landing of Queen Madeleine. She was formally received by the king at St Andrews a few days later with pageants and plays performed in her honour, and a great deal of generally blithe rejoicing, before being remarried the next morning in the Cathedral of St Andrews."
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Wikipedia