Fife in History and Legend

Fife has always been one of Scotland’s most distinctive counties. 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.