| Name: | Scoonie | CISP No: | SCNIE |
| Place: | Scoonie | Grid Ref: | NO 3840 167 (GB)
|
| Parish: | Scoonie | Stones: | 1 |
| County: | Fife , Scotland | Saint(s): | none |
| Site Type: | ecclesiastical |
Forsyth/1996, 480: `The old church at Scoonie had been in use for services until 1775, when it was taken down and a replacement built at Leven. The cross-slab is the only archaeological evidence for early medieval activity at the site. The earliest documentary reference, dated 1055x1059, is among the notitia in the Register of the Priory of St. Andrews: the granting of the church of Sconyn to the Culdees of Loch Leven. According to the register of the Priory of St. Andrews and the Ontifical Offices of St. Andrews, the church of St. Memma the Virgin at Scoonie was re-dedicated by Bishop David of Birnam in May 1243. Anderson equated 'Memma' with Monenna, the supposed sister of St. Patrick, who, according to legen, founded seven churches in Scotland. .. The name Sconyn, like its more famous Pethshire counterpart Scone, is of dubious origin. Popular dictionaries of Scottish place-names link it with Gaelic sgonn, `lump' or `mass'. This word does not appear in Irish and may well be a Pictish loan-word'.