Fife Coastal Path

There is going to be some retrospective blogging here of our assault upon the Fife Coastal Path. We started to walk the path during the summer, having started at the Tay Road Bridge, dividing it into chunks of roughly ten miles each. "We", in this case, refers to Susanneke and me, in the company of neighbours from the village; all anxious to find a good reason to walk ourselves into fitness of a kind, and to learn a little more about the Kingdom of Fife.

The walk takes in forests, urban areas, golf links, ancient cities and fishing villages. The stretch through the East Neuk was recently described as one of the finest coastal walks in Britain by The Guardian newspaper.

The Coastal Path runs from the Tay Road Bridge in the North East of the Kingdom, to the Forth Road Bridge in the South West, and covers 67 miles. At the time of writing, we have walked the first 37 of these miles from the Tay Road Bridge.

Near to our starting point is the the famous Tay Bridge - the replacement of a predecessor that collapsed, with a train full of passengers, into the Tay on the "last Sabbath day of 1879 - which will be remember'd for a very long time". The "poet and tragedian", William Topaz McGonagall, commemorated the event in his poem "The Tay Bridge Disaster"

The walk from the Tay Road Bridge towards Tayport is a pleasant one, following the line of a disused railway that descends gently towards the town. The town has an old harbour, now used by small sailing craft. There are fine views North toward Broughty Ferry and the Angus Coast.

On leaving the Eastern side of the town, walkers enter the huge expanse of Tentsmuir Forest - a place well known to this family who often walk our dog and ride our bikes there. The walk around the coast to Kinshaldy Beach is always fun. Seals are usually present in numbers, and the lucky walker might see a pod of dolphins out in the Tay. Sea birds and waders abound, and the forest has fine crops of fungi in the autumn. It's a great place to walk at any time of the year.

Kinshaldy Beach is a broad expanse of sand, with a good access road, picnic areas, and other facilities. Walkers of perspicacity will have a vehicle pre-positioned in the car park in order to return home.

I will return to the Coastal Path in future posts, hoping to catch up with myself! Meanwhile, there is Hamish Brown's excellent "Along the Fife Coastal Path" to read. Next up - Kinshaldy to St Andrews!