Fife Scotland Books

The Wee Book of Fife, Scotland. If the Kingdom of Fife only offered the photographer picturesque old fishing villages like Elie, St Monance, Pitenweem, Anstruther and Crail, it would be sheer paradise - but there's so much more to it than that. There's the historic town of Dunfermline with its magnificent Abbey - the site of Robert the Bruce's burial. Formerly Scotland's capital and the place where the king in Sir Patrick Spens's poem famously drank the 'bluid-red wine', Dunfermline is the birthplace of philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and has one of Britain's most beautiful public parks, Pittencrief Park. Situated a few miles south-west of Dunfermline is Culross. Here, amongst the narrow cobbled streets and the houses with their crow-stepped roofs and distinctive pan-tiles, you'll find yourself transported back to the sixteenth century. To the east is Fife's most industrial town, Kirkcaldy, and further round the coast is St Andrews, the home of golf. Scotland's oldest university, currently the place of study for a certain William Windsor, was founded here in 1413. And the beaches at St Andrews and Burntisland are justly recognised as two of Scotland's top beaches. So, whether you live here or are just passing through, The Wee Book of Fife is the perfect memento of a unique area. The Wee Book of Fife.

Villages Of Fife. At one time or another, these habitations were the core of the county's community life, and their individual stories provide a rich source of Scotland's local and national history. Fife has seen many of the major events in Scottish history, and this book covers the places, parishes and people, their leaders, labour and leisure and the part that village society played in the vibrant county with the pretensions of a kingdom. From Kingsbarns to Saline and from Wormit to Dysart, Raymond Lamont-Brown reveals the myriad of villages and how they developed, showing how they are as alive today as they ever were, still contributing to the ongoing story of Fife. In addition, he also seeks out the lost villages of Fife, its almost vanished prehistoric settlements, and reveals what village names can tell us about locations, historical events and personages and the life and industry of the people who lived in them. He also reviews the village heart of such larger places as St Andrews, Cupar, Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy.

The book covers all of Fife's villages and hamlets and is arranged in a reader-friendly A-Z format, allowing each settlement to be located and enjoyed separately or as part of a wider specific area. Villages of Fife.

Fife in History and Legend. Though never a kingdom in its own right, its geographical position as a peninsular county between the firths of Tay and Forth has helped maintain its self-contained identity through the ages, and even today Fifers are notoriously proud of their varied and beautiful corner of Scotland.

Although the county has played a central role in Scotland's history since earliest times, its period of greatest historical prominence was during the pre-Industrial age. St Andrews was one of the country's great ecclesiastical centres from the tenth century onwards, as well as the home of Scotland's first university (1412). During Stewart times, Dunfermline and Falkland were two of Scotland's most important towns.

Not surprisingly for a county of such extraordinary historical resonance, Fife contains a huge number of churches, castles and houses that witnessed events that have quite literally shaped the nation. In this book, Raymond Lamont Brown introduces the reader to these places and those associated with them, from the great abbeys of Lindores and Balmerino and the major towns of St Andrews, Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy to the beautiful villages of the East Neuk and the islands of the Firth of Forth. In addition, he also introduces some of the less familiar details from Fife's to produce the most complete introduction to this fascinating county currently available. Fife in History and Legend.


The Fife Book. St Andrews housed the bones of the country's patron saint and it was there that Cardinal Beaton was murdered and John Knox flung into the galleys for France. Dunfermline was the birthplace of Charles I. Falkland Palace still bears the bullet holes of an attempt to kidnap James VI, and it was the woods of the Kingdom that were stripped to build the Great Michael, the largest ship in Europe. The county has a rich agricultural and industrial traditions and its characteristic architecture reflects the importance of trade with the continent, particularly with Holland.

The villages of the East Neuk are justly famous. From earliest times Fife was also famed for its mining, its saltpans and its limekilns. To north and south the peninsula is linked to the mainland by great bridges on the Forth and Tay, monuments to Victorian enterprise and twentieth-century technology. It is a land that even today preserves a vibrant and distinctive heritage and identity. The Fife Book (Birlinn).