Old Photograph Fisher Folks Laying Out Cod To Dry Cellardyke East Neuk Of Fife Scotland

Old photograph of fisher folks laying out Cod to dry by the harbour in Cellardyke in the East Neuk Fife, Scotland. I was raised in this old fishing village on the East coast and attended Cellardyke Primary School and Waid Academy in Ansruther. I was raised a Dyker. Cellardyke was formerly known as Nether Kilrenny, Scots for Lower Kilrenny, or Sillerdyke, and the harbour as Skinfast Haven, a name which can still be found on maps today. The harbour was built in the 16th century and was rebuilt between 1829 and 1831. By 1860 Cellardyke was a thriving town, with more than fifty boat owners and skippers year round, and one hundred other captains joining in for the annual herring fishing drive or Lammas drave which took place around the Lammas festival on August 1st. There was also a February surge in fishing, when shoals of herring arrived in the Firth of Forth. The fish curers of Cellardyke salted and smoked cod and herring from Anstruther as well as their own fish, sending some of their wonderful food to London, and some as far as the West Indies. Blog Post of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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