Scottish Tour Guide's Blog

Today, our tour group left Edinburgh promptly at 0915 and then headed north to commence a tour of the Fife Coast, north east of Edinburgh. After about 1 hour we reached our first destination of Lower Largo. Here is a summary of the tour progress:

• Lower Largo, a former fishing village on the coast which was the birthplace of Andrew Selkirk, the real world role model for Robinson Crusoe.

Alexander Selkirk

• St. Monans with its historic church. A service was in process during our visit but we still walked round the exterior of the church and admired the local area.

St Monans Church

• Ellie, with its sandy beach and yachts.

Ellie

• Pittenweem, still engaged in  commercial fishing with a fleet of fishing boats in port.
• Anstruther. There was an added bonus here as there were various activities in process in support of a lifeboat appeal. There was a small fleet of Porsche cars, veteran cars dating back to the 1920s, motorcycles and veteran tractors . We availed of lunch at the famous Anstruther Fish Bar.

Anstruther

Veteran Car

Anstruther Fish Bar

• Crail. A very quaint and colourful harbour where lobster fishing is still undertaken.

Crail

• St. Andrews. Here we visited the famous (ruined) Cathedral, viewed the castle, walked through town past the University buildings to arrive at the famous Old Course where we took pics at Swilken Bridge.

St Andrews Castle

• Our final destination was the famous collection of Pictish stones at Meigle in central Scotland. We were fortunate to have benefit of  a short talk/description by the local museum manager who is also studying these, mainly 9th century, carvings for a Phd.

Carved Pictish Stone

We arrive at our destination near Dunkeld about 5.45pm. Later we went into Dunkeld for dinner.

Weather today was benign and relatively sunny.

This evening, I am presenting some images from a recent visit to the picturesque church of St. Monans which is located on the Fife Coast.

The name may have come from an Irish missionary, Monanus or Monans or Monan who may have come to Fife about AD832 and is believed to have preached on the nearby Isle of May. Monanus was slain by Danish invaders about AD 875.

St. Monans church was founded by Alan Durward about AD 1265-67 with the present building attributable to King David II ( 1329-1371), possibly as a thank-offering to God. It was Sir William Dishington who was actually commissioned to build the church during 1362-1370 at a total cost of 750.00 Scots pounds.

Sometime before 1477 the church was granted to Dominican Friars then was burned by the English in 1544 and subsequently became the parish church in 1646. Only the choir was used for worship from 1646-1848. In 1955 a restoration was planned under direction of Ian G. Lindsay.

At time of our visit the church was being prepared for a wedding-which added a special dimension.

This church is a fascinating part of heritage on the Fife Coast.

This evening I am posting an image from a recent tour of the Fife Coast. Included in the tour was a visit to the famous church at St. Monans.

The fishing village is named after the church and is located between Elie and Pittenweem.

The harbour is the centre piece of the village.

The church has close connections with the local fishing community but, unfortunately, was closed at time of our visit due to preparations for a wedding.The associated grave yard is rich in local family history and of interest to ancestry researchers.