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Foundation support strikes right note for Kingsbarns community

A successful refurbishment of an historical church organ has brought music to the ears of parishioners in the Fife village of Kingsbarns. The restoration of the Foster & Andrews Organ in the Parish Church was supported through local fundraising and contributions from a number of groups including the Alfred Dunhill Links Foundation.

Built in 1882 for the Cambo House, on the outskirts of the village, the organ was gifted to the church in 1953 by the Erskine family. Over several decades use where its sound quality experienced steady decline, the church set up an organ fund in the early 2000’s to help finance its restoration.

After raising a third of the required funds through the efforts of the church and its parishioners, a number of other bodies contributed to the project. Along with the Alfred Dunhill Links Foundation, financial support was also provided by the Cookie Matheson Charitable Trust and the Small Fund for generous grants. The project was also supported by the University of St Andrews with the refurbishment works carried out by Paul Miller of Bonnybridge.

The restoration project took one month to complete and involved repairs to the leather flaps in the organ’s windchest as well as replacement and reforming of many of its pipes.

The newly refurbished instrument was unveiled at a celebration concert at Kingbarns Parish Church during the 2024 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship which featured pieces played by Chris Bragg, Head of Programming at the University of St Andrews Music Centre, and two of the university’s music students, Michael Chamberlain and Daniel Toombs.

Garry Taylor, deputy organist at Kingbarns Parish Church and one of the locals involved in the fundraising project, said: “This project involved a huge amount of work but we’re delighted to have our church organ restored. It’s just fantastic to have this concert to mark the occasion. This organ is a real part of the community and we hope it will now last for another 140 years.”

In June 2011 the Alfred Dunhill Links Foundation was established as the official Foundation of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. The Foundation is committed to developing young amateur golfers in Scotland and South Africa and also supports the University of St Andrews and the St Andrews Pilgrim Foundation, which refurbishes and preserves historical monuments in the town.

Chris Bragg explained why the organ is so special and funding was vital to its future condition. “What we have here is very historic local organ, this is one of the best preserved examples of a Foster & Andrews organ it’s an outstanding little instrument.

“There was a lot of wind noise a lot of action noise, clattering of the action, and in the 1980’s they had a made a small tonal change. The flute stop on the grate had been transposed up an octave and as a result it was very bright but didn’t blend with the rest of the organ. What was great was that the money was available to reverse that, and the organ now sounds as good as it did in 1882.”

The professional organist has studied at the Organ Conservatoire of Scotland and Amsterdam and is also a writer about organ and history and design. He runs an organisation called Sound of Organ which advocates for the restoration of organs in Scotland. “Organs are a very important and undervalued part of Scottish heritage.”