The ‘Kingdom’ of Scotland: A Weekend in Fife
Scotland’s ‘Kingdom’ of Fife is steeped in history, the royal moniker stuck since the days when all Scotland was divided into Pictish kingdoms. Nowadays it’s loyal subjects are more likely to be interested in golf, beaches, farming and, er, golf. There’s proper fish’n’chips by the sea, and one world class restaurant.
Food fit for a king in fact.
OK. WE’RE HERE.
Fife’s bracing coastline, wide open space, and endless golf courses have all but eclipsed the area’s historic importance. The main town Dunfermline was once Scotland’s capital, before Edinburgh took over, and Alexander Selkirk, better known as Robinson Crusoe, started life here, as did Andrew Carnegie, before setting off for fame and fortune elsewhere. Kirkaldy manufactured enough linoleum to floor the entire British Empire and there were huge mines, large dockyards and heavy industry employing thousands of people.
Nowadays, Fife is less industrialised, attracting travellers to countryside where farm tracks and lanes lead you to small villages and neat little harbours by the sea.
Fife’s small hamlets may be attractive to the eye, but they do have the oddest names. Pitscottie, Pittenweem, Kippo, Upper Carnbee and Pittarthie are just a few from hundreds which are mimicked (with an approximation of the local dialect) by other Scots to their eternal amusement. Fortunately, Fifers are blessed with a sense of humour too. Books from the friendly public library in Cupar (free internet if you join!) throw light on a rich mix of ancient Gaelic and Pictish names peculiar to the region. More illuminating is a walk around the perfectly preserved village of nearby Ceres, which shows how life was way back when and houses the Fife Folk Museum too.
The coastline is dominated by St Andrews (see separate entry) but the villages of the “East Neuk” should be found and visited.
How to get here
The “Kingdom” has one watery border to the north (the River Tay) and one to the South (the River Forth) which means as long as you can get to Dundee or Edinburgh you only have to cross a bridge.
Trains and flights to Edinburgh are many and varied but one of the least known is from London City by Air France – which also serves Dundee (by the way, Air France has a cool desktop widget with travel reviews from, ahem, other websites. Anyway, it's nice to see an airline dip its toe into the 21st century). London City has its own DLR station so tube travel from Central London is easy.
Edinburgh Airport has all the car hire companies including Arnold Clark, the large Scottish chain, who serve Dundee as well.
STAY WHERE?
The area's carpeted with cheap and cheerful lodgings but there is one singularly special place in the middle of nowhere. "The Peat Inn" is a restaurant whose bedrooms were created to meet the needs of diners downstairs who didn’t want to drive home. It’s welcomed the great and the good through it’s doors for more than 30 years – from Fife locals to Hollywood A list - and is actually very easy to find, since the village itself is called Peat Inn too (what a coincidence!) and is signposted for miles around. It’s a short drive from either St Andrews or Cupar.
The ambience is informal and warm (a welcoming decanter of sherry awaits) but the accommodations are striking. Rooms include split level suites, downstairs to a big comfy bed, a modern bathroom and windows overlooking the garden, and upstairs to a sitting room/study with flatscreen TV and large picture windows overlooking neighbouring farmland.
It was originally created by David Wilson and his wife who won Scotland's first Michelin star in the restaurant, but who’ve now moved on. The new young owner Geoffrey Smeddie is behind the stove, (see below) and his wife Katherine has moved things forward in the rooms. Cynics declare that there is only one reason to go to Fife - to stay and dine at The Peat Inn. How dare they!
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
1. The seaside
The coastline along the "East Neuk" (literally 'east corner') has a string of villages which each reflect the changes over the centuries away from fishing and a vibrant sea trade with Europe.
The jewel in the crown is Crail, a former fishing community so pretty it's been colonised by artists and second homers who delight in the harbour activity and rich local architecture. Order your cooked Crail lobsters down on the harbour side, from a tiny ramshackle shed, then have a wander round the pottery, a family run concern that’s successful because their range is diverse, top quality and attractive.
Neighbouring Anstruther, where bizarrely the local pronunciation is actually ‘enster’, has been a summer holiday haven for Edinburghers for years. It houses the Scottish Fisheries Museum with artefacts kept in former boatsheds and outside, afloat, and also conceals the coast’s best fish restaurant, The Cellar. Summertime here can be stiflingly busy so go find the historic Dreel Tavern for at least a beer, if not some grub.
Pittenweem retains its fishing fleet and market, so a more commercial atmosphere prevails; a drink in the Larachmhor with the fishermen testifies to that. It’s not all tourists around these parts.
And so on, along to St Monan’s and Elie, busy in summer with second homers, quiet and revitalizing in winter.
Further north is St Andrews - but that's a separate story.
2. The Pittenweem Arts Festival
All along this coastline, artists’ studios can be found in all the villages, but each August the arts festival here invites more. Studios are opened up, houses too, paintings and sculptures are sold . A good time to go. More information here.
3. Golf
There are 46 golf courses in Fife, dominated by the Old Course at St Andrews which, through a ballot system and payment of up to £130 in peak season can be played by anyone with a half decent handicap. Cheaper, less restrictive alternatives abound and can be found via VisitScotland here.
LET’S DO LUNCH
Cheap
In Cupar the traditional town centre bakery Fisher and Donaldson will serve you a cheap lunch and terrific homemade chocolates. It's all very old fashioned but on the edge of town they've built a smart new glass roadside stop, a veritable fast food joint (except the food's actually good). £1.25 for a bridie (a Scottish pasty invented just a few miles north of here in Forfar) or £1.47 if you want it warm (recommended).
Not so cheap
In Anstruther, slap bang on the harbour front, is the "famous" Fish Bar. They serve fish and chips. Which are utterly brilliant. Say no more.
Not cheap but worthwhile
Back in Cupar, a rare gem, Ostler’s Close is the best in town, with lunch served on Saturdays only, and dinner most nights. A hard working husband and wife team produce the goods. Good alternatives on the coast are The Cellar (Anstruther) and The Seafood Restaurant (St Monan’s) which specialise, needless to say, in fresh, local fish, simply prepared to taste great.
WHAT’S YOURS?
Afternoon tea can be ruined by the weather, so what’s required are failsafe alternatives.
In the chillier months, a brisk walk around the Royal Burgh of Falkland medieval village and its Royal Palace favoured by Stewart Kings and Mary Queen of Scots can be followed by a traditional tea at Kind Kyttock’s Kitchen, where open fires will keep you warm.
After picking the crop of summertime fruits at the Cairnie Fruit Farm near Cupar there’s not only a tearoom serving strawberries and cream, but a ‘mega maze’ in which children, both small and overgrown, can get lost.
And no matter the weather, 100 feet underground at Scotland’s Secret Bunker, a former nuclear shelter, there’s a retro style café where you can sit at a constant 18°C enjoying a cuppa which can be booked here.
DINNER IS SERVED
The Peat Inn (see above), is booked solidly at weekends, so call in advance. It has been the best restaurant in Scotland before, and may well be again soon.
The reception area is beguiling, with a subtle décor of natural fibres and tones, mixed and matched around big comfy sofas and petite tables for an aperitif now or a digestif later. A warren of pretty dining rooms continue the theme, a bit modern, a bit Scottish, but all very muted. The staff are chatty, polite and well trained. They know their stuff.
The food is, well, killer.
An amuse bouche of carrot and ginger soup was served in a toytown tureen - very, er, amusing - but with an explosive taste for adult taste buds. Innovative little breads, warm and fresh, are salted, or flavoured with sage and onion, or fennel. The tables are well-spaced, lit by pools of soft light, with bright flowerheads highlighting snow white linen – it’s all very comfortable and seductive.
A first course of mackerel rilette, cucumber salad and pickled carrot hits the spot, weighing in with meatiness from the fish but bang on target with just the right sharpness and spicy top notes from, of all things, carrot. Three cheap ingredients sculpted into a round tower, maximising flavour and texture, tingling and exciting the taste buds in an electrifying start. It looked good too.
The main, a braised daube of pork, was the most unctuous, tender piece of pig imaginable - packed with flavour and pushed further by a dense, succulent, gravy served with a creamy mash as a light, neutral balance. Like a good book, I didn't want it to end. I have no idea how long this meat was marinated, how long it was cooked, or how they managed to retain it’s depth of flavour. It was sensational. “Braising” has never been stretched quite this far.
Desserts looked dangerously tempting but I thought ‘restraint’ and opted for a little cheese. The chariot was wheeled up to offer what appeared to be the best kept array of identifiable camembert, cheddar, blue, goats, soft and hard fromage this side of la Manche, plus a few morsels as yet unidentifiable. Except there wasn’t a single French number among them. They were all Scottish and Irish, all perfect (I had several) and sourced from artisans and local producers. The same descriptive categorisation is used, and the tastes are equally powerful, but all were created from pastures within striking distance.
The menu offers local sourcing now regarded as almost commonplace among Michelin czars, but they blazed the trail here, with Anstruther fish, Crail Lobster, razor clams landed at Fraserburgh, and so on. It’s world class food, in the middle of Fife. And at the time of writing, there’s a midweek lunch set menu for £16, plus various tasting menus with or without wine.
The succinct, well educated wine list merits special attention. It declares war on vintage snobbery and offers up "good bottles" instead, no matter the year, the argument being that tasting is all and that bargains can be had from so-called “bad” years. Although having said that, the list is dominated by good years. Prices hover low and rise gradually. A highlight is the sweet, "dessert" wine section which they muse can accompany foods beyond foie gras and pudding. It includes a rare offering in the UK – a Chateau la Bertrande Cadillac 2001 – which French sommeliers rate alongside Chateau d’Yquem. This is the place to try it.
DRIVE BY
For an hour or so…
Dunfermline Abbey holds the key to much of Scottish History, being the burial place of King Robert The Bruce, along with another 8 kings, 7 queens and various princes/princesses. Only Bruce gets his name above the door though, or rather the tower, his name is carved on all four sides.
This was Scotland’s capital for five hundred years.
For the day…
No matter which bridge you arrived over, try the other one. The Forth Bridges are a splendid site and lead you to Edinburgh, while the Tay Bridge, made famous by this poetic disaster, will take you to Dundee or the next golfing valhallah, Carnoustie.
Overnight…
You want out of Scotland fast? A ferry service out of Rosyth, adjacent the Royal Navy Dockyard, is set to resume in 2009 whisking passengers to Zeebrugge by way of the North Sea.
Further reading
VisitScotland’s new “locals guide” and “Scotland the Best” by Peter Irvine. Nobody should ever visit Scotland without a copy.
Added 2008/10/17 @ 22:52:45
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