The Fife Coastal Path: Newport-on-Tay to Newburgh

Sunday 29th August 2021

I started my trek along the Fife Coastal Path on the Monday before this walk, and at the end of the sixth day on the trail I had reached the village of Newport-on-Tay. After walking ninety-eight miles, I had just over eighteen miles left to go, but first I had to get back to Newport-on-Tay and since it was a Sunday morning I was not going to get there early. The only way I could do it was to catch a bus from Leven to Dundee on the far side of the Firth of Tay and then catch another bus back across the Tay Road Bridge to Newport-on-Tay where I was finally able to begin my last stage on the Fife Coastal Path. Unfortunately, this initially involved simply walking along the pavement beside the B946 road out of the village, which is something I seem to have done a lot on the Fife Coastal Path, though the other bits had more than make up for it. Eventually, I came to the end of the road beside Wormit Bay, soon after passing underneath the Tay Rail Bridge, where there is a memorial to the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879 when the original bridge collapsed killing all on board the train that was passing over it.

From my vantage point beside Wormit Bay, I had good views of the replacement bridge and of the piers for the original bridge alongside. Beyond this point the trail continues beside the Firth of Tay on an interesting path that undulates beside thick hedges before crossing a small ravine near Jock’s Hole to enter Scurr Wood and reach the tiny community of Balmerino. Beyond there the path enters Oak Wood, which is a fabulous place that I loved immensely. It was full of vegetation that made the whole place seem like a sea of green, while the path weaved up and down through the delightful surroundings. This was such a wonderful woodland walk that I almost forgot I was supposed to doing a coastal walk until the path briefly dropped down to the shore before climbing back up the side of the hill and I would not be back beside the shore for many hours. The gorgeous scenery was eventually left behind, much to my distress, as I slowly climbed the hillside to rise far higher than the trail had ever done previously. Relentlessly I continued to climb along a gravel track until I reached a quiet road where I decided to stop to catch my breath and to have my lunch before proceeding along the road for several miles of tedious walking.

The lovely green-overload of Oak Wood was a brief respite from the grey, overcast skies overhead and now that I had moved away from the coast there was no incentive for me to take any more pictures until Newburgh was in sight. The views while walking on the road were not exciting as I passed beside green fields until eventually I turned off the road onto a track that climbs towards Norman’s Law, but before I reached the top I turned right onto a track that skirts around the hill passing the highest point on the Fife Coastal Path before gradually descending through conifer woodland as the sun finally began to break through the clouds. After the tracks had taken me down the hill, I passed through farmland before climbing once again around the eastern slopes of Glenduckie Hill and up the grassy slopes of Higham Hill to the top where the view opened up across the Firth of Tay and I was rewarded with a stunning sight. Before me was the wide estuary of the Firth of Tay where various mud banks and the reed-filled Mugdrum Island could be seen looking splendid in the sunlight as I made my final descent into Newburgh beside Lindores Hill.

Once I was at the bottom of the hill, I came up to the shore of the Firth of Tay for a final, celebratory walk beside the estuary that provided me with a taste of coastal walking that I had been missing for many miles on the Fife Coastal Path before finally I reached Mugdrum Park where I passed under the arch that marks the end of the trail. The last two days on the Fife Coastal Path were not great, though Oak Wood is a fabulous example of ancient woodland that was a joy to walk through and the descent into Newburgh with the wide views over the estuary also made up for the earlier road walking. Looking at the whole trail and there were some fantastic moments that justify the acclaim that is given to the Fife Coastal Path though these are mainly beside Aberdour and St. Andrews while outside of those areas there is not enough coastal walking and too much tarmac. Originally the trail ran from North Queensferry to Tayport and I don’t think anything has been gained by extending it to the borders of the county in Kincardine and Newburgh. I am most astonished by my fortune in the weather during my seven days on the trail during which it never rained, which is rare in Scotland. It was a very tiring walk with high mileages each day, but it was a very enjoyable even at its most tedious when it was still very relaxing.

The Fife Coastal Path: St. Andrews to Newport-on-Tay

Saturday 28th August 2021

After the challenges of the rough and remote coastline between Crail and St. Andrews, the Fife Coastal Path now deteriorated to become more like the abundant tarmac of the start of the trail. I had reached the golfing town of St. Andrews on the previous day, so now I caught a bus back there to resume my walk along the Fife Coastal Path that started with me passing the Old Course, which is the oldest golf course in the world, before settling down to walk along a cyclepath beside the A91 road. I was already finding this walk rather tedious as this part goes on for several miles, though for some of the way there was a line of trees between the path and the road, but this deteriorated to become a low hawthorn hedge, later a low wall, then a wire fence and eventually an unprotected path beside the road. All of this while crossing flat, open expanses of grassland with little or no view until finally I came to Guardbridge and crossed the fifteen century bridge where I had views across the supporting piers of the old railway viaduct over the River Eden.

The Fife Coastal Path makes use of the course of the old railway for its route through Guardbridge and provided me with me with a good off-road path, but all too soon I was back beside the road and branched off to take a minor road into the small town of Leuchars, which is dominated by the military base of Leuchars Station. This seemed rather intimidating with tall fences topped with barbed wire either side of the road and manned entrances, though the jet plane parked behind the entrance was very impressive. I followed the road around the base turning to the east to come out of Leuchars, until I eventually came to the end of the road and with one last look at the airfield I continued on a track that heads into Tents Muir. When the trail comes off the track I took to a delight path through extensive dunelands where there was a mixture of trees and grass with many marshland plants. This was an interesting terrain that compensated for the flat gradients on a path that took me across the wild landscape on boardwalks until I reached the much less diverse conifer plantation of Tentsmuir Forest.

I was now on wide forestry tracks and this wasn’t helped when I turned right onto a road where many cars seemed to pass me as I headed along the road to the busy car park for Kinshaldy Beach. Coming off the coastal path, I headed across the dunes and onto the beach, which was vast enough to provide plenty of space despite the large numbers of people, so I was able to find somewhere to sit and have my lunch. After eating, I headed up the sands enjoying the expansive views and slowly drifted towards the sea where I took in the gently lapping waters and took many photographs before heading back across the sands. Crossing the dunes again, I re-entered the forest, but I was not back at the car park or on the Fife Coastal Path. However, soon after entering the forest I found a red-topped post marking a trail that was much more interesting than the coastal path. While that follows wide forestry tracks, this trail takes an interesting route weaving through the trees and I thoroughly enjoyed following it until beside a Second World War observation post it takes a sharp left turn. At that point I headed back out of the forest to have a look across the dunes towards the distant sea, before taking the path back onto the coastal path beside an old ice house.

Now, I followed the trail along tedious wide tracks through the commercial forest, though never far from the edge up to Tentsmuir Point where I couldn’t resist the temptation to head out onto the sands once more where I was greeted by the sight of the wide expanse of Headwell Sands that incongruously had a herd of cows on it and was lined by concrete anti-tank blocks. Across the Firth of Tay, I could see the coastline of the county of Angus that seems heavily populated compared with the coastline of Fife that I had been enjoying all week. Resuming my walk along the trail I finally headed out of Tentsmuir Forest, to walk beside the coast with wide views across the estuary and with more concrete blocks lining the route. This took me into Tayport where the coastal path keeps to the edge of the coast passing through Tayport Links Caravan Park and along the Promenade to the harbour. I had considered ending the walk this day in Tayport, but since it was only three o’clock, I decided it would be best to keep going, so I headed out of Tayport on the route of an old railway line.

In something reminiscent of the start of the day, this later led to my walking beside a road, but now with the heavily developed coastline of the city of Dundee across the Firth of Tay. I continued beside this road under the Tay Road Bridge and into Newport-on Tay where I had decided to end the walk for the day leaving me with the same distance to walk on my final day as I had just walked on this day. However, first I had to find a bus, but that proved difficult especially after seeing a bus I should have caught but not realising until after it had passed me, which left me with an hour to wait for the next one. This was a very tedious walk with hardly any changes in gradient and the only highlight on the trail was while passing through the moorland of Tents Muir. Off-trail, the highlight was the Ice House Trail through Tentsmuir Forest that is marked with red-topped posts, but elsewhere the Fife Coastal Path keeps to wide tracks and pavements which is a great deterioration since its heights of my previous few days along the trail and I wasn’t hopeful about the last stage.