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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