Inverkeithing

Arms (crest) of Inverkeithing
Burgh

Arms (crest) of Inverkeithing
Community Council
INVERKEITHING

Country :

  • United Kingdom
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    • Scotland

Incorporated into:

Status:

  • Burgh (until 1975)
  • Community council (current)


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Official blazon
English
  • (1930) Parted per pale Gules and Azure: in the dexter on a base undy Argent and of the Second, a ship with crenellated prow and stern Or, sail furled Argent, the mast surmounted with a cross Gold; and in the sinister the figure of Saint Peter vested and crowned standing in front of a bench, and holding in his dexter hand a church, and in his sinister two keys all Proper.
  • (1981) Parted per pale Gules and Azure, in the dexter on a base undy Argent and of the Second a ship with crenellated prow and stem Or, sail furled Argent, the mast surmounted with a cross Gold, and in the sinister the figure of Saint Peter vested and crowned standing in front of a bench and holding in his dexter hand a church and in his sinister two keys, all Proper. Above the Shield is placed a Coronet appropriate to a statutory Community Council, videlicet:- a circlet richly chased from which are issuant four thistle leaves (one and two halves visible) and four pine cones (two visible) Or.

Origin/meaning

The arms were granted to the Burgh on December 29, 1930 and to the Community Council on on September 18, 1981.

Inverkeithing seems to have been created a Royal Burgh by King Mal­colm IV between 1153 and 1162.

The arms are taken from the obverse and reverse of the oldest known Burgh seal of which impressions dated 1296 and 1357 are on record.

The dexter side in the red and gold colours of Fife shows a ship, with crenellated prow and a cross at its masthead, thus recalling "the passage and ship of lnverkeithing" granted by King David I to the monks of Dunfermline in 1129; the red, gold and silver colours also allude to Scrymgeour, Lord Inverkeithing and Earl of Dundee.

The sinister side shows St. Peter, patron saint of the Burgh, holding his keys and a model of the parish church. The blue field and the gold of the Saint's halo could refer to the special connection the town had, through its ferry, with the shrine of St. Margaret at Dunfermline.

The community council uses the Burgh arms, but with the crown of a community council.

Image gallery

Literature: Porteous, 1906; Urquhart, 1974, 2001

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