TeddG

Hi All,

It’s holiday season again and we are planning our usual yearly trip to Scotland.
This year though its time for a change and having spent the past 7 or so years enjoying the delights of Western Scotland and the Isles we’ve decided the East of Scotland must be as enjoyable so have decided on Fife.

We are planning to visit in early June (before the Open) but at this stage know very little about the area and ‘must sees’.

We’re currently awaiting brochures from the Tourist Information centre and based on Janisj advice have ordered some self catering brochures from http://www.uniquescotland.com/ and http://www.mackays-self-catering.co.uk/

So as starter I could do with some help on narrowing down where best to locate ourselves in Fife. To give you a clue on the areas we like to stay we have before stayed at places such as (A Farm in Balloch, Apartment overlooking the Harbour in Tobermory, Family House overlooking the sea on Harris) It’s nice to be able to leave where we stay by foot and enjoy the surroundings and access a small village maybe (if we choose self catering) but we will have a car so travelling is not an issue.

It’s not so much at the stage about picking a particular Hotel, B&B etc but trying to narrow down the location options (I’m thinking a coastal town would suit but won’t rule anything out at this stage).

Also if you have any thoughts on ‘Must Sees’ then please let me know. We are happy visiting museums, castles, walking, beaches etc (basically we enjoy the slow pace relaxing holiday just enjoying the scenery).

Thanks for any help at this very early planning stage

janisj

Hi,

What is your budget? If it was me, I'd stay somewhere in the Kingsbarns/Crail/Anstruther/Pittenweem loop -- or -- for inland, between Cupar and Falkland.

But w/ a budget, we could make specific property recommendations.

TeddG

Hi Janis thanks for the ideas on location. As I said this area is completely new to us so any help is appreciated.

We never really start off with having a budget (I.e sometimes a £25.00pppn B&B suits or we rent an apartment say upto £900 for a week if this helps). If the location is ideal and the accommodation nice then we are happy. We also tend to go for places that have parking and no smoking/no pets policies.

We generally like the freedom of self catering or small B&B's and tend to go with places that have a modern feel inside (We're in our 30's)

Hope this gives you a bit more of an insight and thanks for replying.

sheila

Good for you. Were it me, I'd go for one of the smaller villages on the coast. As Janis says, Crail, Pittenweem, Anstruther, St Monans, Largo, Elie.

I've done a Word document on Fife. If you email me, I'll send it to you

TeddG

Thanks Sheila - I will e-mail you later as I'm sure it will be very useful - Your past help when visiting the Western Isles was amazing.

We started narrowing down our accommodation options last night having now got some brochures. The areas you and Janis suggested have helped shorten the list of possibilities so thanks again to you both. Once we've checked availabity of those we've found I'll let you know.

I'm also now looking at places to visit so I'll let you know what I find and I'll ask the experts what they're like.

Thanks

TeddG

Hi again,

After a lot of searching for accommodation and checking availability we have narrowed things down to the following:

Crail
www.crailhouse.co.uk
www.crailholidaycottage.com

St Andrews
www.flowerosfmay.co.uk(nr Boarhills)
www.st-andrews-cottages.co.uk

Auchtermuchy
www.pitcairlie-leisure.co.uk

Just wondered if anyone had stayed at these places and had any good or bad experiences before we make a final choice?

Sheila - Just wondered if you got my e-mail about the Fife word document?

Thanks

sheila

I did, Ted; just absolutely swamped. I'll try to get to it tomorrow morning- posh dinner in town tonight.

Craigellachie

Hi

Sorry for not posting sooner, the day job has kept me away from Fodors for a while. I've never been to any of the accommodation you're looking at but hopefully it's not too late to offer some local insight into each area.

As an adopted Fifer I'm delighted that you've decided to come to the Kingdom.

Auchtermuchty, Pitcairlie - yes, there really is a place called Auchtermuchty and they even have their own comedy festival called the Fox Hat Festival in honour of the UK TV advert that made the village famous. Hope I don't offend anybody or get kicked out of Fodors if I tell you the punch line of the ad was "Auchtermuchty? Wear the fox hat". The name is derived from Gaelic for "ridge of the wild boar" and the village is known locally as Muchty. It's a pleasant enough place with some interesting old buildings in a part of Fife whose rural scenery grows on you with time. A couple of good pubs and some village shops, all with friendly folk who will make you welcome. There's a monument to Sir Jimmy Shand who lived here most of his life and the village is also home to The Proclaimers (Letter From America, I Would Walk 500 Miles and several other unofficial Scottish National Anthems). What it doesn't have is much variety if you're there for a week or two and want to eat out. Pitcairlie is 2-3 miles from the village on a rural, unlit country road which makes it awkward if you both want to go out for a drink in the evening. Good news if you like cooking is you are close to the deer farm at Reediehill. They are passionate about humane farming (so humane that when militant animal liberationists came one night and cut down all the fences the deer refused to run away) and sell the best venison in the world in every imaginable style - and some unimaginable. Venison haggis anyone? http://seriouslygoodvenison.co.uk/

St Andrews Cottages - From the web site these seem to be at Strathtyrum which is about two miles from St Andrews. Even if golf is not your thing, St Andrews is a special place although it can be expensive. As home to one of the best small universities in the world (and the oldest in Scotland) it has a huge range of eating and drinking places and feels like a very cosmpopolitan wee town. There's a huge beach at the West Sands, ridiculously empty even on sunny days for most of the year. OK, I'm biased as I can be there in less than an hour (are you jealous yet?).

Flowers of May - same comments on St Andrews but be aware that this is further from the town than the web site may imply (I found it despite the typo in your link ;-) ) Definitely not walking distance after an evening out, and a long way to the nearest shop.

Crail - one of several villages in the "East Neuk" (neuk is an old Scots word meaning "corner") with lots of olde worlde charm. The harbour appears on nearly every Scottish calendar ever produced - unless they use another East Neuk harbour instead. Being at the extreme east end of Fife would mean that day trips to other parts of the Kingdom are longer. Of your two options for accommodation, Crail House is in the village, The Cottage is some distance outside. Fife Ness (the very tip of the peninsula, near The Cottage) is a popular spot for experienced birdwatchers as all kinds of unusual birds turn up here during migration if they get blown off course from Scandinavia.

From your earlier comments about previous holidays it looks to me as though Muchty or Crail would be more your scene, before you take account of what each accommodation has to offer.

I'll post some comments on must sees and must do's later.

amelie

You are lucky! I don't have much to add since I haven't done much in Fife (went to St. Andrews for a day and it was a very nice town). I love Glamis Castle so much (been twice), is that Fife though? not sure, but it's not fair from St. Andrews.

Do you have pictures somewhere online of all these trips??

How about Perthshire? You should do that one year, if you haven't already.

janisj

"<i>I love Glamis Castle so much (been twice), is that Fife though? not sure, but it's not fair from St. Andrews.</i>"

Not too awfully far - Its near Forfar in Angus, about 30 miles/an hour's drive from St Andrews.

palmettoprincess

My kid's favorite part of Scotland was taking a boat to the Isle of May and seeing the birds. They will be nesting in June. Fantastic.

TeddG

Hi all,

Sorry I didn't post back at the time but I was in the final stages of planning and now having returned from our Holiday in Fife thought I'd give some feedback and list places we visited in case anyone else is searching.

I'll start by saying - Wow! What a week of glorious sunshine. We tend to get lucky with the weather in Scotland but this is the first time I've come back with a suntan.

In the end we stayed in one of the Apartment/Cottages at Pitcairlie near Auchtermuchy and at this point must say a big thanks to Craigellachie for the in-depth summary of each place.

The final swing to us opting to stay here was the 120 acre estate on your doorstep and the indoor swimming pool (as well as a central base near the main A roads). This way we guessed that if the weather was particularly bad we could still make something of the day without having to travel.

On the first day of arrival after a longish drive we enjoyed walking around the woodlands and ponds of the estate and an evening swim to unwind.

As Craigellachie mentioned the village of Auchtermuchy is not in walking distance (and neither would you want to walk down the county lanes with cars passing at 60mph) but by the time we returned each evening after a day of walking the best we could manage was a quick swim then feet up for the night.

On the second day we visited Loch Leven. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys just a leisurely walk around well maintained paths or bird spotting as there is a RSPB centre here which provides free use of the telescopes and remote operation of the TV cameras they have positioned around the loch.

After lunch at the RSPB centre we headed to Falkland Palace and the Town. I’ll add at this point that we visited a number of National Trust places as we are members but had we not been I would have only visited one or two at the most considering the prices they charge per entry and for very little inside some of them.

Day Three started with a short trip to Newburgh where we had an entire park and River walk to ourselves before we visited the Deer centre at Cupar. Next we headed to the Hill of Tarvit (NTS). Now IMHO the National Trust Building isn’t anything special but what I would recommend is the Golf (even if you don’t play).

I stumbled across a 9 hole Hickory Golf Course at the bottom of the gardens. Having left the other halve sunbathing I took the opportunity to have a look around and thought I might sneak a quick round in as the course was empty.

I was greeted by a gentleman dressed as if in the early 1900’s who gave me a quick talk on what they were trying to achieve. Basically the course had just been re-opened and they wanted to re-create the game of golf as it was played in its early days. So as customary in that the era before your round you were offered a glass of whisky.

Now I kid you not but I had a choice of golf balls. Either those from 1898 or 1922. I opted for the 1898 golf balls (you were given 3 each) as they achieved less distance and I guessed less distance meant less chance of losing them.

Next was picking your clubs. No irons here for selection but the original wooden shafted clubs with original bags. As I strolled onto the course to the amusement of passers-by who thought this was great photo opportunity the course manager shouted ‘Only one rule to remember – rule 11, If your club breaks in swing you lose a shot. Don’t worry if it breaks though just bring the pieces back and we’ll fix them in our workshop – it happens quite a bit’

After a not too eventful round (and thankfully no broken clubs) it was back to clubhouse where you were given ginger beer and shortbread again both representing early 1900 recipes.

Day 4 was a day in St Andrews. Shops, walks and a look round the Golf Course

Day 5 started with a trip to Tentsmuir Point. After a stroll along the beach and woodlands we reached the magnificent beach at Tentsmuir Point to find we were the only people there. This was a lovely place and well worth a visit.

In the Afternoon we headed to Craigtoun Park near St Andrews. This was a chance to relive some childhood days so it was peddle boats, bowls and miniature steam trains. A great bit of fun but I must admit the place was looking a little worse for wear which a coat of paint or two would go a long way to restoring.

Day 6 was coastal day so we started off at Elie. This was a beautiful little harbour town with a nice beach so it was stroll and sunbath in the morning. We headed to Anstruther for Fish and Chips at lunch time before heading further up the coast to Crail.

Having enjoyed Elie so much we started day 7 off again there with more walking this time taking a different coastal path. Then it was onto St Monans before visiting our final NTS Kellie Castle and Gardens.

As amelie suggested we did consider Glamis Castle but we just didn’t have the time so that’s one to add to our next visit to Scotland and I’ll have to check out Perthshire for next year now its been suggested. Amelie, sorry no photos online of past trips and it’s a sore point as ‘we’ forgot both cameras on this trip!

We also didn’t manage to get to see the Isle of May as the day we were in Anstruther we had missed the boat trip of the day so that’s another one to fit in some other time.

All in all we had a fabulous time and another wonderful trip to Scotland. I’d definitely recommend a weeks stay in Fife to anyone and I’m sure it’s a place we’ll visit again.

TeddG

amelie

glad you had a nice time and nice weather!! i would be upset about forgetting the cameras too, but i think sometimes i miss a lot when i am too busy stuck behind my lens.

palmettoprincess

I sounds like a great trip. I missed the Isle of May my first trip also. It does give you a reason to come back.

janisj

Sounds like you had a really nice time. Thanks for reporting back.

I hadn't heard about the Hickory golf at Hill of Tarvit House. What a kick! Checked out the website and it looks like a wonderful experience.