Our last day of walking the Fife Coastal Path, and unfortunately probably our least favourite day. There was a lot of pavement, some dirt paths and gravel roads, and not much interesting to see. None of the spectacular scenery that we’d had on al lof the previous days. We took the bus from Kingsbarns into St. Andrews and then on to Leuchars. Our reasons for chopping out the section between St. Andrews and Leuchars were time constraints and the fact that we didn’t want to walk 29 km on our last day. That plus this section is a lot of pavement and highway walking, which didn’t appeal at all.
On our way through Leuchers we passed by St. Athernase Church, a beautiful 12th century Norman church, said to be the best-preserved Romanesque church in all of Scotland. It had a graveyard on the grounds, so we had to go checkout the different ones to see if we could find a really old one. Oldest we could find was 1789.
The first part of the path runs along a country road in the middle of fields. But then you get to part of the path through the Tentsmuir Forest which is very beautiful. In the forest we came upon the Ice House - a structure built in the 1600s to keep salmon fresh. Ice was brought in during the winter from the Highlands and fish that were caught locally were kept on ice during the summer. We also passed by the March Stone - erected in 1794 as a boundary marker. We stopped for a quick treat at a little cafe by the beach called Salt and Pine to enjoy a coffee and a yummy crepe, which is their specialty.
At the end of the Tentsmuir forest you enter Tayport and that is where we stopped to enjoy our picnic lunch overlooking the beach and the ocean. Of interest were the many large concrete blocks lined up on the beach, which seemed to have been there for a long time. And they were! They were used to prevent enemy tanks from landing on the beaches during WW II. We continued along the path that was next to the beach and were eventually able to see the Forth of Tay bridge that joins Newport -on-Tay to Dundee and points north. A very long walk to the bus stop to catch our bus heading back to Kingsbarns, where we had made a reservation at the Inn at Kingsbarns. Enjoyed a lovely dinner and treated ourselves to share an Eton Mess for dessert. And then home to get ourselves organized for our departure for Falkirk tomorrow.