Christmas Day Drive To The Harbour And Coast On Visit To Pittenweem East Neuk Of Fife Scotland

Tour Scotland Winter travel video of a road trip drive, with Scottish music, on Christmas Day, from Anstruther, West on the B942 road, to visit the harbour and coast on visit to Pittenweem in the East Neuk of Fife. Founded as a fishing village around a probably early Christian religious settlement, Pittenweem grew along the shoreline from the west where the sheltered beaches were safe places for fishermen to draw their boats up out of the water. Later a breakwater was built, extending out from one of the rocky skerries that jut out south-west into the Firth of Forth like fingers. This allowed boats to rest at anchor rather than being beached, enabling larger vessels to use the port. A new breakwater further to the east was developed over the years into a deep, safe harbour with a covered fish market. As the herring disappeared from local waters and the fishing fleet shrank, this harbour and its attendant facilities became the main harbour for the fishermen of the East Neuk of Fife. The white houses with red roofs illustrate the classic East Neuk building style, influenced by trade with the Low Countries, Belgium and the Netherlands. The East Neuk offered natural trading ports for Dutch and Belgian captains as they sailed up past the east coast of England. These ships brought red pantiles as ballast, and the locals soon found them to be excellent roofing material. Sir Walter Watson Hughes was born on 22 August 1803 in Pittenweem, the third son of Thomas Hughes and his wife Eliza, née Anderson. He attended school in Crail and was apprenticed to a cooper for a short time, he then entered the merchant service and became a master, including whaling in the Arctic for several years. After hearing of opportunities for trade in Asia, Hughes purchased a brig, Hero, in Calcutta and traded opium in the Indian Ocean and seas of China, having to contend with pirates. He emigrated to South Australia in 1840. Frequently referred to as Captain Hughes, he was a pastoralist, public benefactor and founder of the University of Adelaide, South Australia. Hughes and his wife subsequently returned to England, and bought the Fancourt estate in Chertsey, Surrey, England. He died at his home on 1 January 1887. The B942 is a short B-road in Fife's East Neuk, linking the A917 to itself to provide a shorter route avoiding Elie All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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