East Neuk Of Fife

Overview

Extending south of St Andrews as far as Largo Bay, Fife's East Neuk (or 'corner') is most famous for its incredibly picturesque fishing villages such as Crail, Anstruther, Pittenweem, St Monans and Elie.

The East Neuk villages have few of the grand buildings and important bustle of St Andrews, being mostly old cottages and merchants' houses, all crow-stepped gables and tiled roofs, huddling round stone-built harbours.

Well patronized by holidaymakers and weekenders from the Central Belt, the area's various restaurants are one of its highlights, with freshly landed seafood a speciality, but often complemented by produce gleaned from the fertile Fife farmland that rolls off pleasantly into the hinterland.

Not surprisingly the East Neuk is dotted with windy golf courses and there are plenty of bracing coastal paths, including one out to Fife Ness, the 'nose' of Fife sticking out into the North Sea, or along the waymarked Fife Coastal Path, which traces the shore from Crail southwest to the Forth Rail Bridge, and is at its most scenic in the East Neuk stretch.