Autumn Road Trip Drive From Upper Largo To Cellardyke East Neuk Of Fife Scotland

Tour Scotland travel video of an Autumn road trip drive, with Scottish music, from Upper Largo through Colinsburgh, Pittenweem, and Anstruther on ancestry visit to Cellardyke in the East Neuk of Fife. Sir Andrew Wood of Largo, died 1515, is often referred to as the Scottish Nelson. He made his name in battles against the English fleet in the years around 1500, and in recognition of his feats he was given estates in this part of Upper Largo, Fife by King James III. A house in Colinsburgh is the family seat of the Earl of Crawford.

The Pittenweem witches were five Scottish women accused of witchcraft in the small fishing village of Pittenweem in Fife on the east coast of Scotland in 1704. Another two women and a man were named as accomplices. Accusations made by a teenage boy, Patrick Morton, against a local woman, Beatrix Laing, led to the death in prison of Thomas Brown, and, in January 1705, the murder of Janet Cornfoot by a lynch mob in the village. Two of the accused women, Laing and Nicholas Lawson, were imprisoned again in 1708 after charges of witchcraft were levelled against them by Cowper and another local minister. They were released in April 1709 and pardoned after Queen Anne issued an Act of Indemnity. Another of the accused women, Janet Horseburgh, sued the bailies responsible for her incarceration; she received an apology and monetary recompense.

Cellardyke is where I was raised in Scotland. 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 in 1829. The modern name of the town is thought to have evolved from Sillerdykes, a reference to the sun glinting off fish scales encrusted on fishing nets left to dry in the sun on the dykes, or walls, around the harbour. Fishing was a hazardous occupation, and over the years a number of boats from Cellardyke were lost. On 6 April 1826 a boat was lost. Seven of the crew perished and one survived. On 28 May 1844 a boat with eight crew members was lost. Two years later, on 23 April 1846 a boat with seven crew was lost. On 3 November 1848 a boat with eight crew was lost. The next loss occurred on 10 May 1865, when a boat with eight crew disappeared. In 1910 a boat from Pittenweem sank off Cellardyke with the loss of three lives. There was one survivor. In addition, on 1 July 1837 a boat from Cellardyke carrying people on an excursion to the Isle of May as part of a celebration for the start of the herring fishing foundered. Seventeen women and children lost their lives. I was raised in this old fishing village on the East coast and attended Cellardyke Primary School and Waid Academy in Anstruther. I was raised a Dyker.

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

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