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Villages
in Fife.

It’s 20:57 in Fife.
Fife

The fishing villages of the coast.

The fishing villages of the Fife coast are a joy to wander round. Red pantiled roofs and whitewashed cottages step down to little stone harbours where boats still come and go. Each village has its own character, from a busy harbour front with famous fish and chips to quiet corners where the only sound is the sea. Many are only a few miles apart along the coastal path, so it's easy to walk from one to the next and catch the bus back. Go early or late in the day in summer, and leave time for an ice cream on the harbour wall.

Pittenweem→
Burntisland→
Crail→
Anstruther→
St Monans→
Dysart Harbour→
Village of the day19 hours ago

Pittenweem.

The busiest fishing harbour of the East Neuk of Fife, a village of whitewashed cottages named after the cave of St Fillan, with a famous arts festival.

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From the magazine18 hours agoThe printed copy of Issue 08Issue 08Spring / Summer 2024

Mary, Queen of Scots is said to have shocked her courtiers by playing real tennis at Falkland Palace in Fife wearing trousers rather than a dress.

Real tennis is the forerunner of lawn tennis, a quirky game played inside walls with long-handled rackets. The palace, in the village of Falkland, was once the favourite country retreat of the Stuarts, and its court is billed as the oldest tennis court in the world still in use. The mansion still has a strong Renaissance feel, and the court is one of many reasons to visit. Falkland sits on the edge of the Lomond Hills, and on its outskirts Maspie Den has a woodland path that takes you right behind a waterfall.

See Falkland Palace · Fife
Lunch16 hours agoFifeBàern Cafe0.7 milesFifePittenweem Chocolate Company1.5 milesFifeThe Dory, Pittenweem1.6 miles

Lunch near St Monans.

The three good places closest to it: Bàern Cafe, Pittenweem Chocolate Company and The Dory, Pittenweem.

See St Monans
Did you know15 hours agoWritten byLouis D. HallMore from Louis

Louis D. Hall, walking the length of Fife from west to east, began in Culross, the 16th-century village on the Firth of Forth.

‘Less than five miles from Kincardine (on the far west point of Fife), there is a beautiful village called Culross. Built up from the sixteenth century onwards, identifiable by its ochre-coloured palace and cobbled streets, I have known it primarily for the wonderful Red Lion Pub and the wide reaching views of the River Forth. Others may know it as the star of ‘Outlander.’ But there is far more than what initially meets the eye.’

Written byLouis D. HallMore from LouisRead the full story
In Fife13 hours ago

The Kinneuchar Inn at Kilconquhar is fifth in The Times' new list of Scotland's 75 best restaurants.

The village inn in the East Neuk was named alongside Inver, Glenturret Lalique, Gloriosa and Timberyard in the top five.

See The Kinneuchar Inn · Fife
From our guide10 hours ago

Crail.

A visit to this historic fishing village and former royal burgh is like an East Neuk checklist. Sloping cobbled streets? Check. Charming little harbour? Check. Top-notch seafood? Naturally. And if you’re a war buff, there’s a deserted airfield-cum-military-academy on the village outskirts, where – improbably – English writers Alan Bennett, Michael Frayn and Dennis Potter were all once stationed.

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True or false9 hours ago

True or false: Culross Palace, in the old village of Culross in Fife, was once a royal residence.

From the magazine7 hours ago

Each August, the Fife fishing town of Pittenweem holds a week-long arts festival, with artists showing their work everywhere from front rooms to garden sheds.

Pittenweem, in the East Neuk of Fife, is one of the most charming of the area's fishing villages, with whitewashed houses, pantile roofs and crowstep gables. For one week each summer, homes and venues large and small all over town turn into galleries for a brilliant visual arts festival. The rest of the year it is a living, working fishing town. Fishing boats still come back into the harbour early each morning as the covered fish market starts up on the quay, so if you stay over, it is worth getting up to watch them come in.

See Pittenweem Arts Festival · Fife
From our guide6 hours ago

Anstruther.

The largest of the pretty East Neuk fishing villages is visitor-friendly Anstruther, known among other things for its colourful harbour facades, its bobbing masts, and its award-winning fish and chips. Take time too to visit the Scottish Fisheries Museum, home to an extensive collection of historic boats and seafaring paraphernalia, and which has garnered multiple awards of its own.

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Villages4 hours ago

Burntisland.

A seaside town on the Fife coast of the Firth of Forth, with a big sandy beach, the Links, a museum and the volcanic hill of the Binn above it.

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Did you know3 hours ago

The sea caves at East Wemyss, in Fife, hold what is thought to be the largest and perhaps oldest single collection of Pictish symbols.

Nine caves open off the shore at East Wemyss, and the Picts cut their symbols into the walls of several of them. About fifty were first recorded, and 26 still survive, in Court Cave, Jonathan's Cave and Sliding Cave. Jonathan's Cave also holds 19 Christian crosses in different styles, and among the other carvings is a boat more than a thousand years old. Historic Environment Scotland protects the caves as a scheduled monument, and you can see them on a guided tour, which runs from April to October, with a visitor centre and museum at Terras Hall in the village.

Photograph: Simon HirdRead about it
In Fife1 hour ago

The new Silent Hill game, Townfall, is set in a coastal town modelled on St Monans in the East Neuk of Fife.

Its fictional St Amelia borrows the village's brightly coloured stone houses, winding streets, harbour and stone steps down to the rocky shore, so the real place will look familiar to anyone who has played it.

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