This Underrated Region in Scotland Has Rich Maritime Heritage and Plenty to Offer Adventurous Travelers — Here What It's Like to Visit
Discover authentic hospitality and history in the picturesque fishing villages of the East Neuk, a little-visited region of Scotland's Fife coast.
When my husband and I emigrated to Scotland from South Africa, we were like children in the proverbial candy store: A whole country of new experiences lay spread out before us, tempting us with promises of spectacular scenery, magnificent wildlife, and the kind of history that stretches back millennia.
Our initial adventures saw us following in the well-trodden footsteps of countless other visitors. We drove the sweeping valleys of Glencoe, which was famous for its big-screen appearances in "Highlander," "Skyfall," and several of the "Harry Potter" movies. We explored the fairy pools and glens of the Isle of Skye and ticked another box on the bucket list with a tour of Edinburgh Castle.
Each of these was an exceptional experience I would recommend to anyone. But, as we passed laybys packed with campervans in the west of the country — or jostled shoulder to shoulder with tourists on the capital’s ramparts — I wondered if there wasn’t perhaps a more authentic way to experience our new home. It was with this goal in mind that we pored over a map and picked a destination at random: Pittenweem, a tiny village on the East Neuk coast, partly for its amusing name and partly because heading east felt like a conscious move away from the crowds and off the beaten track.
Destination chosen, I scoured the internet for a place to stay and came up with minimal options. A promising sign of fewer people, but not especially helpful in facilitating a comfortable three-day getaway with two small children. In the end, I booked Brackness House, a B&B located a few minutes drive from Pittenweem on the outskirts of neighboring Anstruther.
Our first indication that we had chosen somewhere a little bit special came a few days before departure when our host, Robert, contacted me to ask whether we would be happy to let ourselves in since we would be arriving late and he and his wife had tickets to a play.
After spending eight years in South Africa, where those who can afford it live behind high security walls, it was an alien concept that someone would be willing to leave a key so that strangers could access their home in their absence. However, we agreed and set out on a wet and windy evening on our journey to the East Neuk.
The Neuk (a Scots word meaning “nook” or “corner”) is a peninsula of land on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth, stretching roughly between the towns of Elie and Earlsferry and Kingsbarns. A network of narrow country roads serves it, so it was with two faintly queasy children that we arrived in the dark for our first night at Brackness House. I remember a brief impression of stone-walled Victorian grandeur and a grateful collapse through the front door into a generous family room equipped with one of the most comfortable beds I’ve ever slept in.
The following day, we drew the curtains on a world washed clean by a night of stormy weather. Sunlight streamed into the breakfast room, where Robert and his wife Catriona served us an exceptional full Scottish breakfast that changed my husband’s previously scathing opinion on haggis. They took the time to tell us about the local area, making suggestions on what to see and do and giving us our first taste of the genuine friendliness that defines East Neuk hospitality.
Our first stop was Pittenweem, the village whose eccentric name had drawn us to the area.
A harbor with a fishing industry that dates back to medieval times, it’s undeniably full of charm with its whitewashed homes and red-tiled roofs. Fishing boats in bright, primary colors bob in the shelter of the stone-walled harbor, while the sea wall is adorned with a tangle of nets, lobster creels, and old buoys. But while none of these scenes would look out of place on a postcard, there’s nothing contrived about Pittenweem. It’s not a movie set or a caricature, but a working fishing village where people’s livelihoods are as governed by the sea today as they were hundreds of years ago.
We strolled along the seawall, our son demanding to be allowed to toddle on top while my husband gripped his hand. Our daughter climbed the rungs of the beacon at the end of the pier, her laughter whipped away by the wind as we gazed out over the burnished water towards the distant silhouette of the Isle of May. Eider ducks bobbed on the surface, and as we walked back to the harbor to watch a returning boat unload its catch of glistening lobster, a seal followed alongside.
The Pittenweem seafront is dotted with places to eat. The kids were unable to resist Nicholson’s Sweets & Ice Cream Shop with its glass jars of old-fashioned candy. And later that evening, we treated ourselves to a memorable meal at the acclaimed seafood restaurant The Dory Bistro, where the menu changes daily to reflect the freshest catch. Ingredients are grown in the restaurant’s kitchen garden or sourced from across the East Neuk. Most importantly, as chef and co-owner Ruth Robinson says, “Our langoustine, lobster, crab, and mackerel are landed in Pittenweem, and you can’t get any more local than that.”
Although food is undoubtedly a highlight of a visit to the East Neuk, there’s much more to Pittenweem and its surrounding villages.
The former is home to St. Fillan’s Cave, where local legend claims that a 7th-century missionary once sat writing sermons by the light of his magically glowing arm, which God had illuminated for that purpose. The key to the cave is available from The Cocoa Tree Café. Anstruther, the busiest of the East Neuk settlements, pays homage to the region’s rich maritime heritage at the Scottish Fisheries Museum — a deceptively large building filled with fascinating exhibits detailing the history of the local fishing industry.
Anstruther is also the departure point for cruises to the Isle of May, a National Nature Reserve that hosts up to 200,000 nesting seabirds annually between April and September. We signed up for a five-hour round trip with Anstruther Pleasure Cruises and were rewarded with the surreal experience of finding ourselves momentarily alone on the island's far side amid a maze of puffin burrows carpeted in swathes of white sea campion. These comical little birds, with their brightly colored bills, are the reserve’s most famous residents, but they also share the stage with a host of guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, shags, and fulmars.
Immediately next door to Anstruther is the quieter village of Cellardyke. On Robert's advice, we arrived in the late afternoon and drove to the far end to park near the Cellardyke Tidal Pool. This serene patch of still water is protected by a natural rock ledge from the sea beyond and is hugely popular with wild swimmers. Not tempted to take the plunge into the frigid North Sea ourselves, we let the kids run wild in the waterfront playground while we ordered cups of steaming coffee and chocolate-slathered waffles from The Grind, a gourmet café operating out of a silver Airstream. As it turns out, sugar and salted sea air taste like freedom.
Our last morning was spent in Crail, possibly the most picturesque of the East Neuk harbor villages, with its backdrop of ruined 12th-century castle ramparts. We made the obligatory climb to the top of the sea wall for a birds-eye view of the boats protected within, then wandered over to the adjacent beach. While this stretch of sand cannot rival others along the Fife coast for sandcastle building or long, romantic walks, it is unique for its Carboniferous-era fossils. These include a fossilized tree stump and sets of tracks left by Arthropleura, a giant, armored centipede that would have measured over four feet in length.
Obviously, there is so much more to the East Neuk than what we could discover in a few short days. We’re already planning a return trip to explore the golden beaches of Elie, the historic salt pans at St. Monans, and perhaps even the whisky distillery and World Top 100 golf course at Kingsbarns. But even our brief sojourn to this often-overlooked part of the country confirms that while it may lack the film-set landscapes of the West Coast or the glamor of the capital, it is well worth a lingering detour for anyone who wishes to catch a glimpse of “real” Scotland — both as it is now, and as it has always been.
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