A Step Too Far on the Fife Coastal Path

A walk on part of the Fife Coastal Path in the East Neuk of Fife. This 14 mile trek starts at Crail, passes around Fife Ness, and pretty much hugs the coast most of the way to St Andrews. Not far from Kingsbarns the path leaves the shore and heads inland through woodland at Boarhills to allow a crossing of the Kenly Water.

Along the way we step inside a pretty impressive doocot, the Crail Priory Doocot, at Crail, a sixteenth century structure with lighting and pigeons cooing. You just canny beat a pigeon cooing.

We also stop by Constantine's Cave, where it is thought King Constantine I, one of the last Kings of the Picts and the second King to rule all of Scotland, was killed after a battle with Vikings around the year 874. Constantine was the son of Kenneth MacAlpin, a Pictish King, and the first King to merge the Scots and the Picts in 843 to form the Scotland that we know today. Today's British Royal Family claim descent from Kenneth MacAlpin.

Between Boarhills and St Andrews the path becomes very rocky and we have to take to the shore to avoid golf courses and herds of cattle. We then find ourselves on many stone steps by rocky cliffs, which is both exhilarating and exhausting.

In a state of some knackeredness (not a word, I know, but I think it should be) we arrive in St Andrews and finish off by the ruins of St Andrews Cathedral, a magnificent structure largely destroyed by a Protestant mob during the Scottish Reformation.