Seafield, Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland.

As the clocks sprang forward by one hour last week – the nights are fair drawin’ oot, as we say here. I love this time of the year because it’s almost like getting another life as there’s light to do things after dinner time, like take a walk along the coast to Seafield, which is what we did a couple of nights ago, as you can see, the tide was quite far out. Sometimes there are seals on the rocks here, but not this time. Until about 20 years ago there was a coalmine underneath the sea here. It must have been very scary to mine in those conditions.

arocks and sea 1

There are some nice red rock formations along that part of the coast. It looks like sandstone to me but I’m not sure that it is as that is a very soft stone but this seems to be able to stand up well to being battered by the North Sea.

arocks 1

It’s difficult to get photos without junk in them. The whole place is littered with stuff which has been lost overboard from ships. Buckets, old ropes, smashed up creels and bits of tarpaulin seem to come in with every tide. Every now and again there is a community clean up weekend, but it’s a never ending task.

arocks and sea 2

This was our destination, Seafield Tower, or what is left of it. It was abandoned in 1733. I don’t suppose you can be sentimental and save all old buildings, there are so many of them around Scotland. This one has clung on to the coastline for hundreds of years and until recently it was really quite safe to have a walk around in it but the heavy seas of this last winter have taken their toll on the tower.

aTower 2

As you can see from this photo, there has been a fairly massive rockfall from the tower and I suppose it’ll eventually all disappear into the North Sea.

aTower 1

Kirkcaldy Beach and ships

I’ve blogged about Solitaire before, she’s the biggest pipe layer in the world and a few weeks ago she was joined by her sister ship the Audacia. They’ve both been coming and going every now and again but most of the time they’ve been anchored in the Firth of Forth.

The first time I saw one of these very strange looking pipe layer ships I was amazed at how weird it looked, it was the Solitaire, a Swiss army knife of a ship and I really thought it was quite ugly looking but I’ve now changed my mind completely and I love all those bits hanging off it, I think it’s quite elegant looking. In fact when we’ve been driving back along the Orrock Quarrry road from Edinburgh and get to the spot on the road when you can see the Forth, I was hurrah-ing whenever she came back into view. What can I say – but I live a quiet life!

Pathhead foreshore + ships

Yesterday I happened to be on the beach at Pathhead in Kirkcaldy and took the chance to snap them again, and I’m glad that I did because last night Audacia sailed off for Haifa, Israel. I wonder how long it’ll take her to get there?

Further along the beach I came across a mini stonehenge construction, I don’t know who built it but they’re my kind of people. Why stick with sandcastles when you can branch out to something more solid!

a mini stonehenge

The other photos I took were mainly of rock formations on the foreshore which I intend to put on Pinterest – if I ever get around to joining it!

Elie and Earlsferry, Fife, Scotland

A couple of weeks ago we went for a drive along the Fife coast to Elie but we ended up visiting Earlsferry too because the villages run into each other and it takes you no time to walk from one to the other. The photo below is of the Bass Rock and I took it from the main street in Earlsferry. It looks quite eerie somehow but it’s quite a view for people to have from their garden. The rock is home to thousands of sea birds so you can guess what the white stuff is! In the dim distant past prisoners used to be put on the rock and R.L. Stevenson mentions it in Kidnapped.

Bass Rock

The next three photos are of some of the local houses which I particularly fancied the look of. The one below is so cute a wean/kid could’ve drawn it.

Cute wee house

This one must once have been two flats, as you can see the window at the bottom on the left hand side was originally a doorway. The orange coloured roof tiles are called pan tiles and they were widely used on the east coast of Scotland but they originally came from Holland, they were used as ballast in ships which sailed here.

Pink cottage

The one below is altogether much grander and as soon as I saw it I thought it looked very similar to the houses you see in France so I wasn’t surprised to see that its name is Marionville.

Marionville

This one is of Elie taken from the beach in Earlsferry which is just off the main street there. They are nice wee places to visit but I really wouldn’t want to live there, they feel so remote and there’s not much in the way of shops at all. I don’t fancy having to travel miles to the nearest supermarket when we eventually downsize, so we won’t be moving to this area. The search continues!
Elie from Earlsferry

Aberdour, Fife, Scotland

Last Sunday was another beautiful blue sky day and although it was a bit chilly we took ourselves along the coast a wee bit to Aberdour. If we ever win the lottery (I have no hope of it) one of the first things which I would spend some money on is a sailing course. Whenever I see yachts I think how great it would be if we could just hop on a boat and sail down to the Devon/ Cornwall area instead of driving on motorways for about 700 miles. Mind you it would be no easy task because the coast is so dangerous and rocky. Hence the need for a sailing course.

Yachts in the harbour, Aberdour.

This is a photograph of a couple of the islands in the Firth of Forth, just off the village of Aberdour. The right hand one is Inchcolm. You can just see the Abbey.

Islands in the Forth.

This one is of just beyond the harbour, you can see a very remote hotel in the distance.

Promontory Behind Aberdour Harbour

This is the view from Aberdour beach, looking over the Forth towards Edinburgh. We walked a couple of miles along the coastal path and up through the village so we got a bit of exercise before embarking on our Sunday dinner. Not a bad day.

View from Aberdour Beach 2