Day 86: Bishop Hill, Kinross-shire to Hawkcraig Point, Fife

Virtual Walk: Scotland 2021

 31st March 2021: 55.62km walked today taking the total to 8477.90/8868km. 11% of 68 entries submitting 505.66km.

Today we walk to Loch Leven and venture out to Lochleven Castle. From there we head south over Benarty Hill, past Lochore Meadows and Cowdenbeath to then end up at the coast at Burntisland. From Burntisland we follow the Fife Coastal Path westwards towards Aberdour.

Route 23: St Andrews to Glasgow

From Bishop Hill summit itself we follow the edge of the plateau southwards before reaching a path which goes down a steep gully into the village of Kinnesswood. Here we turn right on the A911 through Easter and Wester Balgedie, before we turn left onto the Loch Leven Heritage Trail just past Carsehall. We pass Loch Leven’s Larder, a cafe and farm shop, a good place to stop for coffee and cake.

We reach Loch Leven at Carsehall Bog, a large area between the path and the loch where geese roost and feed during the autumn and winter. Turning right we walk around the loch until we reach Burleigh Sands. From here we walk to Burleigh Castle, the seat of the Balfours of Burleigh for 250 years. The castle’s origin dates to 1446 when the lands were granted to Sir John Balfour of Balgarvie by James II. Soon after, a tower house was built which forms the basis of the north tower which still exists and then, in 1582, the castle was transformed by Sir James Balfour. In 1716 the estates and titles were seized and sold because Robert, 5th Lord Burleigh, supported the failed 1715 Jacobite uprising. It eventually passed to the Grahams of Kinross.

Past Burleigh Sands, just before we reach the North Queich Burn, there is a path to the left which takes us to a hide where we can do some bird watching over Loch Leven. Before we cross the next burn, the Ury Burn, if we look to the right, we can see Mary’s Gate. This is an old wrought iron gate with large ornate pillars named after Mary, Queen of Scots.

The path we follow is between the loch and Kinross Golf Course before we pass a pier and then the Fish Gates. Looking through the gate we have a great view of Kinross House, the first neoclassical Palladian mansion built in Scotland. It was designed by Sir William Bruce who was also responsible for rebuilding the Royal Palace of Holyrood House. Sir William Bruce actually created the formal gardens 10 years before he built the house so that it would be set in a mature landscape. The house construction started in 1685 and, once it was complete, the Bruce family lived there until it was sold to George Graham in 1777, after which it then passed, through marriage, to the Montgomery family. The gardens were restored in the Edwardian style by Sir Basil Montgomery in 1902. It stayed with the Montgomery family until 2011 when it was bought by Donald Fothergill who has completely renovated the house and gardens.

If we look east from the Fish Gates, we will see Lochleven Castle on the island in the middle of the loch. Leaving the Fish Gates, we pass Kirkgate Point and a cemetery where there was once a church. This point is where the name Kinross comes from, as it means the Head of the Point. When Sir William Bruce built Kinross House, some parts of Kinross which were on the point had to be relocated leading to significant development to the west of the estate.

We soon reach Kirkgate Park and the pier where we will take a boat across to the island to visit Lochleven Castle on Castle Island. The ruined castle is believed to have been built in 1257, however, it is known that there was an earlier fortress here occupied by King Dongart of the Picts in about 490 AD. The tall tower house that dominates the castle ruins is the oldest part of the castle. Its original entrance was 5 metres above the ground giving direct access to the main hall. This was possibly designed like this to prevent flooding, as the original island was much smaller than it is now as the loch was partially drained in 1836 to reclaim land for agriculture. Robert the Bruce stayed in the castle in 1313 and 1323 and also moved part of the royal exchequer to the castle; he was also the first to use the castle as a prison.

In 1392 Lochleven Castle was passed to the Douglas family who owned it for the next 300 years. In about 1550 a circular tower, the Glassin tower, was added to improve the defences of the castle. It was built adjoining the curtain wall across the courtyard from the original square tower.

Lochleven Castle though, is best known for its association with Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1561 she first visited the castle as a guest of Sir William Douglas, and it was here she met with John Knox and discussed the Scottish Reformation with him. She was later returned to the castle as a prisoner after she enraged the Scottish nobility by marrying the Earl of Bothwell and was defeated at the Battle of Carberry Hill in 1657. After being imprisoned she miscarried twins and was forced to abdicate the throne in favour of her infant son, James VI. In May 1658, after disguising herself, she managed to escape from the castle and after another battle which she lost, she fled to England, never to return to Scotland again.

The castle remained in the Douglas family until it was purchased by Sir William Bruce who used the castle as the easternmost focal point of his landscape around Kinross House.

After returning to the pier, we continue on the Loch Leven Heritage Trail south. First of all, we cross the bridge over the South Queich Burn before passing the Todd and Duncan cashmere mill. The mill was built on the banks of Loch Leven in 1897 which gave it a plentiful supply of pure Scottish water essential for the production of cashmere. All the water that is used today is cleaned before being returned to the loch to make sure that the local wildlife continues to thrive.

We now walk along a disused railway line before continuing along the shore of Loch Leven where, in the neighbouring fields, we might see lapwings and oystercatchers. There are also good views across to St Serf’s Island where there was a priory, originally a Culdee establishment before being replaced by an Augustinian monastic community. After crossing the footbridge over Gairney Water, we head away from the loch towards the B9097. Just before we reach the road, we climb past a covered lookout with great views over the wetlands before the path runs parallel to the road for a while.

We cross the road at the RSPB visitor centre at Vane Farm, which has telescopes to watch the birds and also has a cafe. From here we take the Sleeping Giant Path south, so called because the profile of Benarty Hill from the north resembles a sleeping giant. The path zigzags quite steeply through the RSPB reserve before reaching woodland. In the woodland we take the path that goes off to the right to climb to the top of Benarty Hill. At the top of Benarty it is possible to see the Wallace Monument, the Ochils to the west and Loch Leven to the north. From the trig point we head south along the path over heather moorland, before reaching a steep path down into Benarty Wood, after which we have to descend steps to reach a road.

We cross the road and then take the path on the other side called The Avenue, which goes through a strip of woodland called the Ladath Stripe before we turn right to go to Lochore Meadows Country Park. The area of Lochore Meadows has been inhabited since the Bronze Age and within the park is Lochore or Inchgall Castle. The castle was a tower surrounded by a curtain wall, built in the 14th century on an island in Loch Ore by Adam de Vallance. The island was called Inchgall, meaning ‘Isle of strangers’, maybe because the original owners of the estate in the 12th century were French. In the middle of the 16th century the invading English forces regarded Inchgall as one of the 4 strongest castles in Fife. Loch Ore was drained in 1792 to provide more agricultural land, leaving the castle with no water surrounding it.

In more recent years Lochore was the home to 7 coal pits, the first of which opened in 1873 and the last which closed in 1966. They left behind a scarred landscape, but reclamation work has been ongoing since 1967 with Loch Ore reinstated in the 1980s which has resulted in the beautiful Lochore Meadows Country Park. Many activities can be done in the park including golf, fishing, cycling, orienteering, as well as watersports.

From the south-east side of Loch Ore, we follow paths past Lochgelly and Cowdenbeath, both former mining towns. Cowdenbeath became a burgh in 1890 but has a much longer history centered around Beath OId Church. This church, also called Kirk O’Beath, was constructed in the 12th century under the jurisdiction of Inchcolm Island. The church has been rebuilt more than once with the current Beath Parish Church being built in the 1830s. It is said that the infamous graverobbers Burke and Hare procured some of their cadavers from Beath Cemetery in the 1820s. There is still a large stone slab nearby which was placed over a recent grave to protect it from the bodysnatchers.

Before 1850 Cowdenbeath was just a collection of farms within the parish of Beath including Kirkford, Foulfour, White Threshes and Cowdenbeath, with an inn nearby which was a stop on the route between North Queensferry and Perth. The town started to grow rapidly with the arrival of the Oakley Iron Company when it discovered coal seams when mining for iron ore. It was as the town was growing that the inhabitants met and decided that the name of the town should be Cowdenbeath. The town became the centre of mining in Fife in the 1890s which was why the Fife Mining School, the headquarters of the Fife and Kinross Miners’ Association and the first mine rescue station were all established here. As the pits closed, the area suffered economically, but some regeneration has taken place and since the 1980s a site at Mossmorran has become a vast petrochemical works. This processes North Sea Gas piped from Aberdeenshire. As we leave Cowdenbeath on the A902, we cross the A92 and soon see the Mossmorran Refinery off to our left.

At the next roundabout we turn left towards Auchtertool and then turn right through a gate onto the Old North Road which is actually just a track. We follow this until we reach a minor road at Puddledub. We follow this road until we cross the B9157 and walk towards Stenhouse Reservoir where Stenhouse Trout Fishery is based. We pass the west side of the reservoir before returning to the A909. We soon leave this road though and turn left to walk along the south side of Dunearn Hill at whose peak are the remains of an early Iron Age fort. If you go up to the fort, inside you will find the remains of a grand piano! We follow this road for about 1.5 kilometres before turning right where there is a notice saying public path to Burntisland. This path climbs over the east end of Silverbarton Hill then past Binn Pond where we join the Burntisland Outer Heritage Trail to walk south into Burntisland. If we walked east along the Heritage Trail, we would reach the summit of the Binn. This is a volcanic plug which rises to 193 metres and has great views over Burntisland and the Firth of Forth.

Burntisland stands on the north shore of the Firth of Forth and people settled here as it had one of the best natural harbours on the river. It is believed that the Romans under Agricola brought troops and supplies ashore here when they invaded Northern Scotland in 83 AD. The earliest historical record of the town though is from the 12th century when the monks of Dunfermline Abbey owned the harbour and surrounding land. The settlement at that time was known as Wester Kinghorn and developed as a fishing village to provide food for Rossend Castle which we will see later. The harbour was then sold to James V and given royal burgh status in 1541. The town was renamed Burntisland which was possibly a nickname from the burning of fishermens’ huts on an islet now incorporated into the docks.

Entering Burntisland we walk down Grange Road, turn left at Dollar Road and then right at Church Road. Here we find the remains of the medieval Church of St Adamnan or Kirkton Church. The ruins date from around the early 13th century and are dedicated to St Adamnan, who succeeded St Columba as Abbot of Iona, who was active in Fife in the 7th century.

From here we walk down to High Street where we turn right to visit the Star Tavern, built in 1671 and is the oldest town house in Burntisland. Retracing our steps, we go along the High Street until we reach the Burgh Chambers built in 1845, and the Library which was donated by Andrew Carnegie and opened by him in 1907.

Turning down Kirkgate we turn right at Somerville Square where the houses on the south side were built in the 16th and 17th centuries for wealthy merchants. No 30-31 was the home of Mary Somerville, a 19th century mathematician and astronomer. The Masonic Lodge, which is next door, was the family home of General James Robertson who was the last colonial Governor of New York.

Going back to the Kirkgate and turning right we reach Burntisland (or St Columba’s) Parish Church. This was completed in 1594 and is the oldest post-Reformation church still in regular use. It is notable for its square design and inside 4 arched piers reach in diagonally to form a square in the centre. It has a gallery with a separate exit, the Sailor’s Loft, where sailors, whose ships sailed with the tide, could leave services without disturbing the services. There have been changes to the church over the years: the tower was rebuilt in 1748 and the windows were enlarged in 1822. The church is also famous because in 1601 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland met here in the presence of King James VI. The King proposed, and it was agreed, that a new translation of the Bible was required, resulting in the King James Bible.

As we continue along East Leven Street, we reach the Parsonage. This was built by the Rev George Hay Forbes who wanted to build a home, a school and a church to revive the Episcopal Church in Burntisland. He did build the school and the home but died before construction of the church began. The home he built is the Parsonage, designed by the London architect R.C. Carpenter and completed in 1854. Forbes founded the Pitsligo Press, a printing press which he ran from the basement of the Parsonage, on which he printed a variety of publications.

Turning left at Links Place we head up to the High Street. This is near the site of the East Porte, or gate, which was the principal entrance when the town was surrounded by a stone and turf wall. Two of the pillars from the old Porte stand at the entrance to the Links. The Links were granted by Royal Charter in 1541 to the Burgh of Burntisland by King James V of Scotland in exchange for the rights to Burntisland Harbour. Over the years this large grassy area has served many purposes, for such things as the drying of fishing nets and clothes, the grazing of livestock, and for golf. It was once home to Burntisland Golf Club which was founded in 1797 and consisted of 15 holes. The club moved to Dodhead on the north east of the town when the Links became too busy, and this is where it still is today. As well as this, Burntisland Highland Games are held on the third Monday in July and are Scotland’s second oldest games dating back to 1652. The Links are also renowned for the fairground which is located here between May and August every year.

We cross the Links, go under the railway and find ourselves on Burntisland Beach. Turning west we walk along the shore, past the leisure centre, to the harbour. This natural harbour has been used for hundreds of years and, as we already know, Agricola was supposed to have landed here in 83 AD. The port was a major naval base in the mid-16th century and was the centre of the Forth herring industry in the early 19th century. In the 19th and 20th centuries it was one of Scotland’s main coal exporting ports due to its proximity to the Fife coalfields. A ferry service began in 1838 between Burntisland and Granton, across the Forth, and the first rail ferry in the world started here in 1850. This was a roll-in/roll-off rail ferry service, enabling goods wagons to travel across the Forth without having to be unloaded and reloaded at the ports. Passengers, however, had to get off the train and use passenger ferries. This rail ferry service operated until 1890 when the Forth Bridge opened. The west dock is where Burntisland Shipyard used to operate. It was founded in 1918 to build cargo ships for World War 1 and went on to build 310 ships but closed in 1969. It is now occupied by Burntisland Fabrications Ltd which produces major offshore oil and gas fabrications for the North Sea oil industry.

Passing between east and west dock we walk up Harbour Place and pass underneath the railway viaduct, built in 18888 and has 9 span. We turn left at West Broomhill Road and then pass Rossend Castle (or Burntisland Castle). The current building dates mainly from the 16th century but does have a section which was built in the 13th century. It originally belonged to the Abbotts of Dunfermline, but it was Peter Durie of Durie who rebuilt it in the 16th century. He didn’t own it for long though as it was given to the Melville family after the Scottish Reformation in 1560; it was a favourite retreat of Mary Queen of Scots who was a regular visitor. The castle changed hands a number of times before being eventually turned into a boarding house in the early 20th century. In 1957 an early 17th century painted ceiling was discovered in the castle which is now in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The condition of the castle deteriorated until it was almost demolished but was then saved and renovated by a firm of architects who converted it into offices in the 1970s.

From Rossend Castle we walk along Shepherd Crescent before turning down the path onto Monk’s Walk which goes along the shore towards Ross Point. Crossing Seamill Green we reach where the tidal mill once stood. There used to be a large sea inlet here and the trapped tides were used to power the mills at Sea Mill, one a corn mill and the other a saw mill. All that is left is Seamill Pond, as the inlet has been infilled and reclaimed. To the north of this was the site of Alcan Chemicals (formerly British Aluminium) which closed in 2002 after 85 years operation, now the area is a housing estate.

From Sea Mill Pond we cross under the railway and rejoin the Fife Coastal Path. The path takes us westwards past a waterfall on the Starley Burn. This is called the ‘Fossil Falls’ by locals because there is a lot of lime in the water and the rocks and stones become covered in it. We pass back underneath the railway and the path goes along the shore through woodland until we reach Silver Sands Beach at Aberdour.

This is an extremely popular, pretty beach with an area of grass behind the sand where a cafe is situated and the whole area is backed by woodland. From the beach there are views to the islands of Inchmickery and Inchcolm and across to Edinburgh.

We walk to the other side of Silver Sands and take the road, then a path, out to Ha Lighthouse at Hawkcraig Point whose cliffs are popular with rock climbers.