The Fife Coastal Path: Aberdour to Leven

Wednesday 25th August 2021

I woke up at the start of this day to, once again, foggy, overcast conditions in the Kingdom of Fife as I caught a bus from Leven to Aberdour where I had previously left the Fife Coastal Path. I was unable to immediately set off along the route of the trail because of damage to the Dour Bridge that necessitated a diversion alongside the railway line and down Hawkcraig Road to the sea where I finally found a path that has enough dramatic scenery to deserve the title of a coastal path. Previously on the trail there had been rather too much inland walking around industrial developments with far too much tarmac and was not wild enough for my liking. The path around Hawk Craig was much better with tall crags rising above me and many wildflowers at my feet. I was finally seeing why the Fife Coastal Path is so highly praised and why it had attracted my notice. I enjoyed the walk around Hawkcraig Point and after passing a lighthouse joined a road that took me to Silversands Bay and at the far end I came alongside the railway line.

The poor, foggy conditions did nothing to spoil my enjoyment as I walked between the railway line and the shore with trees towering above my head and thick woodland climbing steeply above the railway. The delights continued after I crossed the line sandwiched next to the steep wooded terrain as I continued beside the railway line until I reached the outskirts of Burntisland. Soon after reaching a road I felt my backside getting wet and was reminded of my first day on the Fife Coastal Path when a similar thing happened, so I stopped and thoroughly examined my drinking vessel, but I could find no source of a leak so I put it back in my rucksack and as the day progressed the pressure of the water on the bladder lessened and the leak stopped. Following the streets through Burntisland I headed out to the beach and after a short spell on the promenade I descended onto the wide beach to take advantage of the low tide by walking between the breakwater stones and the wet sands. At the northern end of the beach I came across drier sand where I was able to move away from the coast and enjoy the walk across the sands taking in the views across Burntisland Beach.

Eventually I came off the sands and climbed up to the road around Pettycur and into Kinghorn where there were stunning views across the bay towards a tall viaduct that looms over the small harbour. The spectacular coastal scenery continued with many colourful wildflowers lining the path above a rocky shoreline with the railway line keeping to my right until it finally leaves the coast and I walked up past Seafield Tower and approached Kirkcaldy. With a hopeful glimmer of sunshine I stopped beside Seafield Car Park to have my lunch before resuming my walk into Kirkcaldy and along the wide Esplanade between the beach and the road. Unfortunately by the time I reached the harbour the sun had disappeared again and the fog remained as I passed a flour mill on my way to Pathhead Sands where another low tide option took me across the beach to Ravenscraig Park. I was fortunate that the timings of the low tide during the week of my walk were ideal to enable me to always take the low tide options when presented and I relished the opportunity given.

Ravenscraig Park is largely wooded with distinctive red sandstone and provided me with tranquil surroundings until after I passed through a low tunnel and suddenly emerged in Dysart Harbour. I was in awe of the complexity of this harbour as I made my way around and past the distinctive red-tiled buildings that look out to sea. Another excellent coastline took me to West Wemyss while the sun slowly started to win its battle with the clouds and afforded me with some sunshine as I walked along the coast past a section of the path that has suffered some erosion and into East Wemyss. Just beyond this village is Wemyss Caves, which is made from the locally common red sandstone and is greatly acclaimed. I stopped for a short exploration of Court Cave and Doo Cave before climbing up to MacDuff Castle but then turned around and came back down to look for Well Cave and Jonathon’s Cave. There didn’t seem much to see in these latter and I soon climbed back up away from the coast and onto an old railway line that took me into Buckhaven.

My map indicated that I would now be stuck on roads all the way into Leven, however soon after reaching Buckhaven I discovered a green path that took me around the settlement beside the coast and saved me from some tedious pavement walking, but was only temporary. Soon, I came out of the park and onto roads that took me into Methil and on until I eventually passed over the River Leven and into the town where I was staying. On this walk I finally saw that everything I had heard about the Fife Coastal Path was true and I felt fortunate to be walking it in such dry and warm weather. It may have been very misty for much of the day, but this didn’t detract from the delights of the walk and I thoroughly enjoyed it despite walking over twenty miles. My original plan for doing the Fife Coastal Path had been for much shorter walks, but I had not planned to end my first day after only eight miles. Instead I had planned to stop at North Queensferry after sixteen miles and the next day to do another sixteen miles as far as Kinghorn leaving a shorter day into Leven. To still end a stage in Leven, I had added seven miles to this stage and just one to the previous day, but such was the quality of the coastline and the good weather I hardly felt the distance and I could hardly wait to keep going.

The Fife Coastal Path: Cairneyhill to Aberdour

Tuesday 24th August 2021

For the whole time I was doing the Fife Coastal Path I was based in one place: at the campsite in Silverburn Park near the town of Leven and I had spent the previous evening to this walk going around Leven exploring where I was going to be staying for the next week. It was a lovely sunny evening and I took full advantage of the good weather to have a pleasant stroll through the town and along the coast. The following morning it looked like it was going to be just as sunny, but mist had soon rolled in by the time I caught the bus back to the village of Cairneyhill in West Fife where I had left the Fife Coastal Path the previous day. Therefore it was under grey, overcast skies and with heavy fog, similar weather at the start of the walk the day before, that I left Cairneyhill and rejoined the Fife Coastal Path. The dull weather was not a problem at first as I was just walking beside the A985 road, around the tiny village of Crombie, before finally coming off the road onto tracks that took me to the coast at Charlestown. To make the most of this historic place, I came off the trail onto a rough path that descends steeply to the harbour and was a welcome change to the tedious roadside walking of the trail. Beside the harbour I should have turned left, but instead I turned right until it became obvious that I couldn’t get far that way so I turned around and passing the bottom of the path reached the quaint harbour.

On the other side of the road from the harbour is a line of well-preserved limekilns that was an impressive sight, especially in the mist, though I would have got a better view of them, if it hadn’t been so foggy, if I’d walked out to the far side of the harbour. Instead I followed the road back onto the coastal path and into the village of Limekilns while the views into the Forth Estuary continued to be misty and moody over the rocky shoreline while steep wooded cliffs lay inland. Leaving the road, the trail became more interesting underfoot as it contours around Bruce Haven until eventually after passing Rosyth Old Church the path begins to steadily climb away from the estuary. Since the coastal path is generally flat, any uphill sections come as a bit of a shock to the system, but fortunately, unlike the day before when I was weighed down with a ridiculously heavy rucksack, I now had a light rucksack on my back so I ploughed on up the hill and was rewarded with clear views across the countryside and blue skies overhead while the mist lingered in the estuary. The trail returned to the A985 road, which I followed past an entrance to Rosyth Dockyards and around the naval base through Rosyth tediously walking on pavements throughout. This is not my idea of a coastal path and I was getting rather frustrated with the abundance of tarmac, however in the distance the bridges over the Firth of Forth beckoned me on.

The newest bridge, the Queensferry Crossing, is the tallest and could be seen emerging from the mist as I followed the road past St Margaret’s Marsh and under the access road for the bridge gradually descending towards the village of North Queensferry. After passing underneath the older Forth Road Bridge I eventually reached the harbour that is the centre of the small community underneath the nineteenth century Forth Rail Bridge that is such an icon of Scotland. There, I had my lunch basking in the sunshine and in the sight of the two road bridges while above me trains rumbled across the Forth Bridge. When I tried to resume my walk along the trail I was immediately confronted with a closed path, so I had to find the diversion, which took me under the Forth Bridge and up a path to the original route that heads into Carlingnose Point Nature Reserve. Now I felt like I was on a proper coastal path as the terrain was stunning with wild scenery around me and a rough path underfoot that was an absolute delight and the only disappointment was that I wasn’t getting a good view of the Forth Bridge as the coast turned away. The stunning terrain continued as I descended to the small bay of Port Laing, while the whitewashed houses of Dalgety Bay sparkled in the sunshine across Inverkeithing Bay.

Unfortunately the delightful, wild scenery soon came to a crashing end when I turned the point of the very Gaelic sounding Ard Alanish into inner bay where industry intruded with Cruick’s Quarry and Jamestown. More tedious road walking took me into Inverkeithing until eventually I came back out to the coast where there was a stunning view back towards the Forth Bridge as I walked along a delightful path past the remains of Prestonhill Quarry and into the town of Dalgety Bay. The trail skirts the edge of the town before plunging into fabulous woodland around Downing Point, but after that I was walking through tiresome residential areas that were not fun to walk through and seemed to go on for far too long. This trail is great when man doesn’t intrude, but there are far too many times where the trail passes through heavily developed land. Eventually I left the residential areas of Dalgety Bay behind and walked around the actual Dalgety Bay, which was a much nicer place to walk, even though the bay itself is out of bounds due to radioactive waste that is currently being removed. In much more relaxing surroundings, I walked around the bay until I reached the ruins of St Bridget’s Kirk where I finally left the coast to head inland, then right along a wide, but pleasant track that eventually brought me through a golf course into the village of Aberdour.

I covered seventeen miles along the Fife Coastal Path on this walk and Aberdour seemed like the best point to stop and catch a bus back to Leven. It was great to tread out the miles on this walk, especially with a light rucksack after my agonising walk of the previous day. There was an excessive amount of industry in the Firth of Forth that intruded on the walk, but the trail was at its best when it was beside the coast, since it is supposed to be a coastal path. However, for large sections of this stage of the trail it was not within sight of the coast, especially during the first half of the walk, but overall it was much better than the first day and the highlight was the three bridges across the Firth of Forth, but even beyond there the trail was often marred by man’s destructive intervention. Despite the beauty of the Queensferry Crossing, man never improves the landscape and it is only when nature is given free reign that beauty can truly develop.

The Fife Coastal Path: Kincardine to Cairneyhill

Monday 23rd August 2021

I have heard many good things about the Fife Coastal Path, so for many years I have had a desire to do the walk, and when I was trying to decide what to do on this holiday I eventually decided that now was the time when I would finally do this long distance trail. I had been staying in Dalkeith Country Park, south-east of Edinburgh, so first thing in the morning I caught a bus into the city and a coach from there over the Forth Road Bridge to Halbeath Park & Ride where I caught another coach that took me to Kincardine at the start of the Fife Coastal Path. However, rather than being excited at starting the trail, I was distracted by two related problems. Firstly, I was desperate for a toilet and couldn’t find one in Kincardine and secondly, the bottom of my rucksack was wet. Initially I thought the latter was due to it sitting on wet grass, but I eventually realised my water bladder was leaking. With these two pressing concerns on my mind I headed out of the small town and under the arch near Kincardine Bridge that marks the start of the Fife Coastal Path. Unfortunately the weather was not great with heavy mist that obscured all views leaving dull, grey overcast skies overhead.

After a frustrating half a mile I eventually managed to find somewhere discreet to stop and solve my first problem and then I moved my water bladder to a place where it would be less compressed and hopefully not leak. My biggest problem on this walk was not so easy to fix and that was the excessive weight of my rucksack. While I was in the Lake District earlier in the year, I had skimped on weight as much as possible, but for this holiday I wasn’t supposed to be walking with my full rucksack, so I’d filled it with as much stuff as I liked. I had not planned on starting the Fife Coastal Path until the next day, but then I changed my mind thinking that if I could get a head start on the trail then I would have more time later in the holiday to do some walking elsewhere. This was disastrous as you can’t walk very quickly or very far with a heavy rucksack. Very, very slowly I made my way beside quiet roads passing the disused Longannet Power Station until I eventually came alongside a now seldom used railway line that runs beside the coast.

The Fife Coastal Path follows the railway for several miles where I was provided with my first glimpse across the mud flats out into the misty estuary of the Firth of Forth. This was an awesome sight and kept me going as I wearily dragged myself along the trail until I reached the village of Culross where I was finally able to stop for lunch beside a very large anchor in a playground. After eating I resumed my shuffle along the trail soon reaching the Valleyfield Lagoons that were created from the ash leftover from the combustion of coal at the power station. This is now a nature reserve and there are paths around the artificial island, which was interesting to look at, but I just stayed on the coastal path beside the railway line eventually passing over the line and reaching a road that took me into the village of Newmills. I was now becoming very weak and my rucksack was beginning to crush me as I followed the road under the railway line and out into the stunning views across Torry Bay while the sun finally came out. I was aching with every inward breath, but for the moment the stunning views across the bay kept me going.

There were beautiful wildflowers beside the path and stunning views across the bay as I followed a path along the edge, but all too soon I had to leave the coast and climb agonisingly steeply up the hill to Crombie Church. After more than seven miles of flat walking while carrying a heavy rucksack, this was agonising and I was now really struggling to breathe, so I resorted to lifting the rucksack with my hands just so I could breathe. I knew I would not be able to go on for much longer like this. When I reached the junction with the A985 road I turned left, instead of right, off the Fife Coastal Path and walked into the village of Cairneyhill where I waited for a bus. My original plan for my first day on the trail was to do about sixteen miles as far as the Ferrytoll Park & Ride, but this was never going to be possible now as I was supposed to be at my campsite by five o’clock. When I reached Cairneyhill, I realised I had just missed a bus and had to wait a long time for another one and it took so long for get me to Leven that I didn’t reach the campsite until just after five o’clock, so I was getting phone calls to find out where I was.

With hindsight, I should not have started the Fife Coastal Path on this day. Instead I should have spent a leisurely morning exploring Dalkeith Country Park before slowly making my way to Edinburgh, where I could have spent some time looking around the city, before catching the coaches across the Forth to Fife and reached Leven mid-afternoon with plenty of time to check in. It is curious how badly my heavy rucksack affected me on this walk as this is not the first time I have struggled with a heavy rucksack, but previously it has not been as disastrous as on this walk. I wondered if it would have helped if I’d been using my walking poles, but we’ll never know. Looking to the positives, I had started the Fife Coastal Path, which I had been looking forward to doing for many years, eventually doing about eight miles and despite the misty weather conditions I enjoyed some spectacular coastal scenery that I was looking forward to continuing in the following days with a much, much lighter rucksack.

The Dalkeith Musselburgh walking path and Arthur’s Seat

Sunday 22nd August 2021

Since I hadn’t been to Scotland last year, I was looking forward to finally making a return visit after more than two years since I was last in that lovely nation, so it was with great excitement that I caught the train to Edinburgh, even though despite my long absence, mountains were not to be my primary goal on this holiday. When I got off the train it was raining, so I immediately caught a bus to the town of Dalkeith where I was camping in Dalkeith Country Park. Once I had put up my tent and despite the rain continuing to fall, I set off for a walk around the park following the purple topped posts of the Old Wood Walk beside the River South Esk to the Meeting of the Waters with the River North Esk where I turned to follow the latter back upstream to Dalkeith Palace. My first proper walk of the holiday started the next day after the rain had stopped, though it was still grey and overcast when I set off from Dalkeith along the route of a trail that is marked on Ordnance Survey maps as Penicuik to Musselburgh Cycle-Walkway. This mouthful is not found anywhere else on the internet where other names for the trail can be found including on the Midlothian Council website where it is called the Dalkeith Musselburgh walking path.

Crossed the River South Esk I passed Dalkeith School campus onto an old railway line that provided me with a relaxing walk over level terrain along a tarmac track that was lined with many wild flowers including knapweed and rosebay willowherb that served to keep my interest. After passing under the A68 road, I walked through a wooded area before reaching the village of Whitecraig where I followed the cycle signs for National Cycle Route 1 beside the road until the trail came off the road to descend to the side of the River Esk as it makes its way towards the coast. Now the dominant flower was balsam, which although invasive, is at least sweet smelling. When National Cycle Route 1 crosses the river to head towards Edinburgh, I stayed beside the river that now became more tidal with coastal sounds becoming more noticeable. As the river broadened, wildfowl became a common sight as the river passed through Musselburgh until finally I reached the sea, beside Fisherrow Sands. Although the views were very hazy onto the Firth of Forth, there was still had a great sight across the broad sands. I was now on the route of the John Muir Way, which is a coast to coast path that goes from Dunbar on the east coast, where John Muir was born, to Helensburgh, where John Muir set sail to emigrate from Scotland to the United States.

Turning west along the John Muir Way, I walked beside the coast into the city of Edinburgh and into beautiful, overgrown scenery beside Brunstane Burn. I had to be careful on this path as it was very narrow and there would often be cycles coming the other way that I had to avoid. The sun had, by this time, begun to break through the clouds and this was providing me with a lovely walk through the delightfully overgrown landscape. After the stream became Niddrie Burn, I found an area on the bank where wildflower seeds had been thickly sown producing a fabulous kaleidoscope of colours that was much better than the invasive balsam that seemed to be elsewhere beside the stream. The trail continued towards the city centre, now joined by National Cycle Route 1, as I passed Duddingston Loch on the route of another old railway line with the fearsome crags of Arthur’s Seat looming before me. Just as a tunnel mouth appeared, the John Muir Way branched off, but I fearlessly plunged into the tunnel and it was quite exciting. The 523 metre tunnel is richly decorated with graffiti and is on a steady incline of one in thirty until it finally deposited me in the middle of a modern housing estate.

After some confusion I managed to find my way out of the estate and into Holyrood Park where Arthur’s Seat stood tantalisingly close, but first I stopped to have my lunch. Unfortunately, while I was eating, mist came over and obscured the top of the hill, so when I set off up the path I soon disappeared into the clouds. Climbing steeply up, I followed the path from the Hawse that zigzags up the popular hill to the top of the broad south top before proceeding up to the tiny, crowded summit. Just as I leaving the summit, someone asked me if this was the route down to Holyroodhouse and I had to confess that I had no idea as I’d never been to the top of Arthur’s Seat before (he thought I looked like I knew what I was doing). I remember starting the ascent as a child, but we never reached the top so I’m glad to have finally made it, but it was a shame that I had no view and that the summit was so crowded, though that was inevitable since it was a Sunday. I tried to avoid the crowds coming down and find my own way, but that ultimately proved that I didn’t know where I was going and I ended up at Dunsapie Loch to the east of Arthur’s Seat, so I had to climb back up to pass over Whinny Hill, to the north, only to find very steep, treacherous ground on the descent to St Margaret’s Loch.

Passing the loch, I headed to the Palace of Holyroodhouse with the Scottish Parliament building on the other side of the road where I wondered what I would do next. After a short walk up the Royal Mile, I thought about a hill that I had seen during the descent of Arthur’s Seat and came off the Royal Mile to pass the new UK Government building of Queen Elizabeth House down to the railway line before climbing a staircase known as Jacob’s Ladder. Not far from the top of the staircase is St Andrew’s House, where the Scottish Government is based, and across the road is Calton Hill, where I had extensive views towards Arthur’s Seat and the old town of Edinburgh, while to the north, I had extensive views across the new town of Edinburgh and towards the misty Firth of Forth. There are also plenty of memorials dotted around the top of the hill, but these were not as interesting to me as the views, despite the haze. Coming back down, I made my way to Princes Street Gardens with an idea of heading up to the top of Castle Rock, the third craggy hill in the centre of Edinburgh, but when I noticed the rapidly advancing time, I decided not to bother wondering aimlessly around Edinburgh any longer and to catch a bus back to Dalkeith.

This was a great walk to start my holiday in Scotland. It was wonderfully relaxing to do the Dalkeith to Musselburgh path before the steep climbs up Arthur’s Seat and Calton Hill. I have not previously had the time to explore Edinburgh as I am usually just passing through, so I have appreciated the opportunity, especially Arthur’s Seat, which I had actually planned to do at the end of my holiday at Easter last year.