Begin: Anstruther waterfront
Distance: 7 miles (14 miles if not returning by bus)
Time: 3-4 hours
Complete ascent 102 metres
Problem: Straightforward. Use OS Explorer 371 map
Google map of the route
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The barman on the Ship Inn beams at me. “We reckon we’re the one pub in Britain with a cricket group whose pitch is the seaside proper outdoors,” he says, unfurling his bowling arm in the direction of Scotland’s impossible sporting area. It would really feel incongruous, however Fife’s typically ignored East Neuk is stunning to a synapse-popping diploma: we’re speaking caves ravaged by Vikings, resurrected Victorian lidos and villages the place it seems to be just like the Hanseatic League simply left. Views throughout the Forth to Edinburgh Fortress include puffins, sea eagles and the occasional whale.
This surreal nook of japanese Scotland (neuk actually means nook) was pressured into the backwaters by the departure of the railway within the Nineteen Sixties; the arrival of Thatcherite economics then decimated Fife’s hinterland mining communities. Sure, the impossibly picturesque outdated fishing villages and massive skies have since seduced many a dreamer and artist, nevertheless it’s nothing in contrast with the times when the East Neuk sported Europe’s largest medieval market.
Even getting right here isn’t straightforward, as the twin carriageway offers up, together with that railway, at Kirkcaldy. Probably the most spectacular technique to proceed is on the Fife Coastal Path, a 116-mile epic, designated one among Scotland’s Nice Trails, which sweeps from Kincardine-on-Forth within the south-west, proper alongside Fife’s Forth fringes, swallowing up the East Neuk and surging north previous St Andrews to affix the River Tay for a closing flourish west to Newburgh.
There are quite a few bite-size chunks of the Fife Coastal Path. This stretch is right, as its fulcrum is the East Neuk’s most satisfying pub and also you miss out the Chain Stroll simply to the west of Elie, a startling problem that doesn’t a lot set pulses racing as set off coronaries, with its steep and infrequently slippery ascents and descents. You’re strolling in opposition to conference strolling east to west; however that is the East Neuk, so that you’re up in opposition to a trickle of walkers slightly than a tide.
Following the waymarkers west out of Anstruther’s promenade, there may be simply sufficient time to hit your stride earlier than the village of Pittenweem. I make a remark about it being the quintessential East Neuk village. Later, my teenage daughter and strolling companion is extra blunt, declaring, “all of them look the identical”.
That feels like a criticism of the East Neuk villages, nevertheless it’s not. Not in the event you want your gables Flemish, your stone partitions whitewashed or pastel, admire orange-hued roof tiles and assume streets are finest cobbled. Pittenweem is kind of the postcard, however harsher instances all the time echo within the East Neuk. Simply north, off the Fife Coastal Path, we discover St Fillan’s Cave signposted. It’s a brutal reminder of the times when makes an attempt to transform Norsemen to Christianity have been met with the sharp finish of a Viking sword.
We discover lighter aid simply previous the park west of Pittenweem. Right down to the left, Pittenweem Tidal Pool rests on the sting of a wee seaside. I chat to a bather who explains the enchantment of this revamped oasis: “I began to swim within the sea, however I used to be all the time anxious I’d get swept out. Right here I really feel secure and there’s an actual sense of neighborhood.”
There may be undoubtedly a appeal to a pool you'll be able to peer out from in quest of dolphins; not too long ago returned sea eagles and the whales too, who repeatedly breeze by the East Neuk. Allure, too, sails out by means of these puffin-populated Forth isles – I make out Tolkien-esque Bass Rock, residence to the world’s largest colony of northern gannets.
Man has fared far worse than gannets on Bass Rock, the island as soon as serving as a jail: Scotland’s Alcatraz. Among the many most infamous inmates have been Jacobites condemned for his or her makes an attempt to usurp the Hanoverians from the British throne within the seventeenth century and return what they noticed because the rightful Stewarts.
The Fife Coastal Path continuously vaults you forwards and backwards in time. Subsequent is the brilliantly reborn St Monans Windmill. Data boards discover the times when the windmill helped pump water out of the salt “pans”, stone swimming pools constructed on the seaside, from which salt was extracted – you'll be able to nonetheless make out the swimming pools. If this stout redoubt hints at resurrection, the village of St Monans teems with life.
That is no Cornwall-esque second home-infested fishing village confection: that is the true deal. The fishing fleet churns out and in of the working harbour in all weathers. The East Pier Smokehouse is prospering too, their smoked salmon and cured beetroot-infused fish threatening to relegate the Ship Inn to my second lunch of the day.
The ultimate stretch to Elie is probably the most dramatic, kicking off with St Monans’ 14th-century Auld Kirk, an austere-looking church stated to have been constructed on the location of St Monan’s grave, earlier than you allow the village. We're swept off right into a riot of cliffs and dunes peppered with an arch of seashores, man including his personal drama to the pure amphitheatre with a brace of brooding fort ruins. You don’t want restored nice halls and costumed guides, not when Newark Fortress has all of the grandeur and setting of Dunnottar with out the vacationers – plus a preserved doocot (dovecote to non-Scots audio system). Your creativeness has to work more durable at Ardross Fortress, however this bulwark does boast a farm store that showcases the East Neuk’s fertile farmland.
The early Twentieth-century Ruby Bay lighthouse lastly steers the way in which forwards in time in the direction of Elie. Simply left of the Fife Coastal Path, Woman’s Tower evokes our final ghost, that of Woman Janet Anstruther. She had it cast as a summer time home in 1770. Woman Anstruther seems to have been the polar reverse of the Duchess of Argyll, depicted outrageously within the BBC’s current A Very British Scandal. Legend has it that Woman Anstruther had a bell rung to thrust back villagers when she was bathing.
I end this stroll joined by a person who embodies the artistic and resilient East Neuk. Douglas Clement was a caddie who obtained so bored with vacationers in St Andrews bemoaning the shortage of a Fife whisky distillery he constructed his personal – the award-winning Kingsbarns, additional alongside the Fife Coast. “There's something concerning the East Neuk. It’s arduous to place your finger on, a wierd sense of the previous and the current co-existing,” he smiles, as within the distance the crack of willow on leather-based rings out throughout a Scottish seaside.
The pub
Homeowners Graham and Rachel Bucknall run a decent ship, ably assisted by head chef Mateusz Mayer – that is an 18th-century inn with a celebrated place on the foodie map of Fife, with fish and meat 100% Scottish. Boat-fresh native seafood is the star, corresponding to East Neuk-landed langoustines and lobster. Summer season sees seafood barbecues each clement day down by the sands, with a sea view – you don’t get that at Lord’s.
Look out for the native ales from St Andrews Brewing Firm and beginner Anstruther’s Ovenstone 109. Stone partitions, wood flooring and maritime thrives retain the Ship Inn’s sense of timeless solidity; the cosiness ramped up with an open hearth and wood-burning stoves.
Keep
4 of the half-dozen bedrooms provide sea views. The Admiral Room is the decide: ease hiking-ravaged muscle groups within the rolltop bathtub, then get pleasure from a dram whereas peering out of the bay window. All bedrooms characteristic Laura Thomas toiletries, Nespresso machines, Fife’s Tea Lovers’ Firm brews and Egyptian cotton mattress linen. There may be free wifi and docking stations, too. Canines are welcome within the brace of Seadog rooms (£25 per canine).
Doubles from £100, shipinn.scot
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