Last Saturday was a beautiful day here in Fife so we decided to take a look around Dysart which is just a couple of miles along the coast from Kirkcaldy. It’s an ancient burgh and there are still quite a few really old houses standing, and indeed still inhabited. The houses in the photo below are fairly typical of old houses on the east coast of Scotland. The design of the gables and roof is known as crows steps.

The view below is what the people living in those houses see from their front windows and it’s a view of the Bass Rock, it’s the rock on the left hand side, you’ll probably have to click to enlarge it. In reality it’s quite visible especially if the sun is shining on it because it’s now inhabited by thousands of seabirds, mainly puffins I think and their you know what makes the rock white. They used to put prisoners on the island which was probably worse than a death sentence as the North Sea is wild there most of the time.

This photo is of the harbour master’s house which is now a bistro. It was lying quite derelict for years but at least now it’s being used for something. Quite a lot of money had to be spent on it, you know what old buildings are like when they aren’t used. They seem to lose the will to exist very quickly.

Now, I must admit that I’d never even heard of John Pitcairn before last Saturday. But he seems to be quite famous in Boston, Massachusetts – historically anyway! I’m not at all sure if information on this plaque is correct. He seems to have died at the Battle of Bunker Hill. His death was painted by John Trumbull in his painting The Death of General Warren.

It has taken us about 25 years to get around to visiting this place, we always seem to ignore what’s on our doorstep!