A Journal for the Thrifty Gowfer
While They Golf · Fife
Crail is the most-photographed of the East Neuk fishing villages — the harbour wall, the white-painted herring cottages, the Saltire flying from a fishing boat. Crail Golfing Society (founded 1786, the seventh-oldest in the world) has the Balcomie course running along the cliffs east of the village and the Craighead course set inland. The village itself, and the East Neuk coast it sits on, gives the non-golfing companion one of the better Scottish coastal days available.
Practical note
Crail is 10 miles east of St Andrews via the A917 coast road. No train station — taxi from Leuchars (45 min) or drive from St Andrews. The East Neuk villages along the coast (Anstruther, Pittenweem, St Monans, Elie) are all walkable from one another on the Fife Coastal Path.
The Picks
On the doorstep · medieval harbour, 17th-century cottages
The harbour at Crail is the most-photographed in Fife — for good reason. The walk along the cliffside from the harbour out to Crail Golfing Society's Balcomie clubhouse takes 25 minutes and is one of the better short coastal walks in Scotland.
10 min west · the museum, the harbour, the Anstruther Fish Bar
The Scottish Fisheries Museum at the harbour is one of Scotland's better small museums — three centuries of east-coast fishing history, free model boats for children to play with. The Anstruther Fish Bar (twice winner of UK Fish Shop of the Year) is across the harbour; eat outside on a bench by the boats.
15 min west · May Princess sailings, May–Sept only
The five-hour boat trip from Anstruther to the Isle of May — Scotland's least-touristed national nature reserve, home to puffins (Apr–Jul) and seals year-round. Allow a full day; bring binoculars and a packed lunch.
15 min west · two more East Neuk villages on the Fife Coastal Path
Pittenweem still operates as a working fishing harbour; St Monans has the most westerly of the East Neuk villages and one of the best fish restaurants on the coast (the Craig Millar at 16 West End). Walk between the three villages on the Fife Coastal Path.
10 min north · pre-book · modern Lowland malt
Just up the coast at Kingsbarns. The 90-minute tour ends with a tasting of the Dream to Dram and the Doocot. Walk the West Sands afterward.
20 min north · cathedral, castle, beaches
The medieval university town with the cathedral ruins, the castle (with the bottle dungeon and counter-mine from the 1546 siege), the British Golf Museum, the West Sands. A relaxed half-day; longer if shopping or eating is on the agenda.
5 min east · 19th-century walled garden, woodland walks, beach
The Cambo Estate has one of Scotland's great late-Victorian walled gardens (best in spring for the snowdrops, mid-summer for the herbaceous borders), a woodland walk down to a private beach, and a small café in the converted stables.
10 min north-west · Cold War nuclear command bunker
An unusual one: the Cold War regional government command bunker, hidden beneath an unassuming Fife farmhouse, decommissioned in 1993 and opened to the public. Two hours; combination of military history and Cold War kitsch.
For the golfer
Other towns