Coast of Fife

On Saturday, Alette, Japhur and I went for a drive along the coast of Fife. This is an area on the east coast of Scotland, just north of Edinburgh. Our route took us from Edinburgh to St Andrew's and we tried to stay as close to the water as possible. Our goals were to take a nice drive, but also to explore areas of the country that might be nice for future, longer visits. Since we don't own a car, we made use of our City Car Club membership, and drove a Vauxhall Corsa Automatic (it also came with clutchless manual) from their East Market location.

It was a beautiful day here on Saturday (sunny and 13 degrees) that made for a great drive. And there were definitely some noticeable changes as we drove along. The first part of our trip, along the Northern coast of the Firth of Forth, just opposite Edinburgh, presented a number of former coal mining towns such as Aberdour, Burntisland, the aptly named Coaltown of Wemyss, and Leven, from which the above picture of Japhur on the beach was taken. While there exist some older structures and architecture, these towns appeared slightly more modern, perhaps from post-coal rebuilding.

We stopped for lunch in Elie, where Japhur had his second visit to a pub, the Ship Inn. This time he was allowed to stay inside with us (as opposed to be relegated to a garden area). Continuing up the coast, we stopped next in Crail. This was a very nice, little town. It didn't seem as crowded or as touristy as the others, perhaps since it did not have much sandy beach (though did have a nice grassy area for walking along the water).

Our final stop was in St Andrew's, a town known to most for either its golfing or its university. The University of St Andrew's is the oldest in Scotland, and third oldest in Britain (after Oxford and Cambridge). It's a very small town, has some nice areas for walking, especially through the University and old castle ruins.

We didn't make it as far as Dundee, but will try to reach it, and even further to Aberdeen on a future visit (likely by train). You can see pictures of our Fife tour by clicking the picture above.