Fife Books

The Wee Book of Fife If the Kingdom of Fife only offered the photographer picturesque old fishing villages like Elie, St Monance, Pittenweem, Anstruther and Crail, it would be sheer paradise - but there's so much more to it than that. There's the historic town of Dunfermline with its magnificent Abbey - the site of Robert the Bruce's burial. Formerly Scotland's capital and the place where the king in Sir Patrick Spens's poem famously drank the 'bluid-red wine', Dunfermline is the birthplace of philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and has one of Britain's most beautiful public parks - Pittencrief Park. Situated a few miles south-west of Dunfermline is Culross. Here, amongst the narrow cobbled streets and the houses with their crow-stepped roofs and distinctive pan-tiles, you'll find yourself transported back to the sixteenth century. To the east is Fife's most industrial town, Kirkcaldy, and further round the coast is St Andrews, the home of golf. Scotland's oldest university, currently the place of study for a certain William Windsor, was founded here in 1413. And the beaches at St Andrews and Burntisland are justly recognised as two of Scotland's top beaches. So, whether you live here or are just passing through, The Wee Book of Fife is the perfect memento of the area.

Hellfire and Herring This evocation of a way of life in St Monans now vanished demonstrates the power of the word to make the local universal and to bring the past timelessly to life. Woven into the fabric of family life, village characters, church and school, Rush writes of folklore and fishing and the eternal power of the sea, the cycle of the seasons, the worlds of the imagination and the unknown, the archetypal problems of fathers and sons and mother love, and the inescapability of childhood influences far on into adult life.

The Fife Coastal Path. The Fife Coastal Path skirting the spectacular Fife shoreline, offers an ideal way to sample the area's rich heritage. It introduces the visitor to its wealth of castles, churches, harbours, milestones and red-roofed 'little houses'.

Fife: Enter the Kingdom (Luath Guides to... Fife) From the world famous golfing town of St Andrews to the picturesque coastal villages of the East Neuk, from the Forth bridges and the traditional industries to the archaeology and the land, Fife has seen great change over the centuries, yet retains many traditions. This book tells the story of the people who left their mark and the events which influenced the development of a nation, as well as detailing the areas that are as lovely today as they were 400 years ago. Topics covered include: background history of all areas mentioned; sites of archaeological interest; the history of mining; walking in Fife; and useful visitor information.

The Forth at War The River Forth was very much a front line against Germany, a fact to which the intensive fortifications on its islands still bear mute testimony. During World War I Rosyth was the headquarters of Admiral Beatty's famous battlecruiser squadron and the Forth saw the greatest concentration of naval might ever seen in history as the German fleet steamed to surrender. Some of the finest pictures ever taken of the construction and fitting out of Britain's last great battleship class - the King George Vs - were taken at Rosyth. This book contains magnificent pictures of the British battle fleet setting sail from the Forth, of the rows of German ships at surrender after both wars, of the extraordinary steam powered K-class submarines for which the Forth was well known and of the destruction caused by Luftwaffe bombing raids. The Forth at War also includes many photographs from around the Forth - Home Guard exercises on the Water of Leith, parades and pillboxes in the centre of Edinburgh, German officers surrendering, the departure of Olaf of Norway for home in 1945, censored shots of Churchill and the King, and much else besides. It ends with the great ships going to their graveyard in the breakers' yard at Rosyth.

Recollections of East Fife Fisher-folk.

Kingdom Cycle Route (Kingdom of Fife....

Fife, the Mining Kingdom.

Fife's Last Days of Steam.

Kirkaldy and East Fife: The Twentieth... Century.

Ruins of Newark Castle, St.Monans,....

Fife, Perthshire and Angus (Exploring... This series provides an introduction to the archaeological heritage of Scotland, detailing the story of one part of the country. The details are filled in by a gazetteer of the most interesting and best preserved monuments, and aim to encourage the reader to explore further using the full-colour section on day excursions. This volume details skilfully carved Pictish cross-slabs, great abbeys and castles, and the imposing cathedrals of Arbroath and St Andrews, together with the Royal Palace of Falkland. Examples of rural architecture are also documented.

Castle Touring Guides: The Heart and... West Of Fife.

Fife and Perthshire: Including Kinross... This guide covers a varied landscape area that is accessible to the highly populated Central Lowlands of Scotland, including the great cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Human endeavour, coupled with a proud colourful heritage, is evident everywhere, in the pretty and historic coastal towns such as St Andrews, in the rolling Lomond Hills and scenic Loch Leven, and, moving further north towards the higher ground, in the mountainous areas around Pitlochry, where the autumn colours have to be seen to be believed. Visits to the area are addictive, causing many to return again and again to the ancient "kingdoms" of Fife and Perth, legendary birthplace of the heartland of Scotland, for further exploration and pleasure.

The Fife Coast: From the Forth Bridges... to Leuchars by the Castles Coast and the East Neuk.

From the sma' lines and the creels to... the seine net and the prawns: A study of the inshore fishing industry around the east coast of Fife from St. Andrews to Buckhaven.

John Fowler, Benjamin Baker, Forth Bridge (Opus 18) When the Forth Bridge opened on 4 March 1890, it was the longest railway bridge in the world and the first large structure made of steel. Crossing the wide Firth of Forth west of Edinburgh in Scotland, it represents one of the greatest engineering triumphs of Victorian Britain, man's victory over the intractable topography of land and water. Not surprisingly, such a vigorous rebuff of the natural order was condemned at the time by those late Victorians who resisted the march of technology, and William Morris described the Bridge as the "supremest specimen of all ugliness". In response, Benjamin Baker insisted that its beauty lay in its functional elegance. Contrasting the bridge with the only comparable structure of the period, the Eiffel Tower, he concluded: "The Eiffel Tower is a foolish piece of work, ugly, ill-proportioned and of no real use to anyone." But the beauty and fascination of the Forth Bridge lies not simply in its functional performance, but in its scale and power. Over a mile long and higher than the dome of St. Peter's in Rome, it rivals the natural phenomena that the philosophers of the 18th century identified as sources of sublime beauty. Immanuel Kant pointed to hurricanes, boundless oceans and high waterfalls as objects of sublime contemplation, "because they raise the forces of the soul above the heights of the vulgar commonplace, and discover within us a power of resistance of quite another kind, which gives us courage to be able to measure ourselves against the seeming omnipotence of nature". In the 19th century the awe-inspiring feats of nature were rivalled by the inventions of the engineers, and the thrill of the waterfall or the lightning flash was eclipsed by the sight of the roaring locomotive dashing across the majestic span of the Forth Bridge.

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