Tour Scotland Spring 4K travel video of a road trip drive, with Scottish music, East on A917 route, to the harbour and coast on ancestry, genealogy, family history visit to St Monans in the East Neuk of Fife, Britain, United Kingdom. St Monans, often spelt St Monance, is a village and parish in the East Neuk of Fife and is named after the legendary Saint Monan. Situated approximately 3 miles west of Anstruther, this small community, whose inhabitants formerly made their living mainly from fishing, is now a tourist destination situated on the Fife Coastal Walking Path. Like other small East Neuk towns, St Monans is rich in vernacular fisher and merchant houses of the 17th to early 19th centuries, with characteristic old Scots features, e.g. forestairs, crow-stepped gables, datestones, pantiled roofs. The original settlement was, according to early sources, known as Inverin, Invery, Inverie, Finvirie, Inweerie, Inverry or even elsewhere Innerny and possibly derived from the Gaelic for at the mouth of a stream. The origin of the present name, St Monans, although similarly there were other spellings St Monance persisting until quite recently, is derived from a 6th century Irish abbot bishop, St Moinenn, from Clonfert who died in 571. One tradition is that he was killed by Vikings there nearby on the Isle of May, and another is that his relics came over with the Scots monks when they originally settled in St Monans circa 870). St Moinenn’s shrine became a popular destination for pilgrims en route to St Andrews, along with the nearby spring to the east of the village which was said to have wide ranging healing properties. This chalybeate spring, located at East Braes, is shown on early maps as St Monan’s Well. In the 17th century, chalybeate, iron rich, water was said to have general health giving properties and that the local fishermen even washed their nets in the water to strengthen them and bring them luck. The well became polluted by pumped mine water and was eventually abandoned and filled in. There was a royal chapel in the 11th century and written records of building on the site from the reign of Alexander III. It is probable that the original chapel was re-built between 1362 and 1370 by King David II. The story goes that this was on returning from English captivity, in thanks for his recovery from a potentially fatal battle arrow wound due to the intervention of St Monan. Another version has it that it was as thanks for surviving a storm at sea crossing the Forth. The church was remodelled by King James III in 1471 when he established a Dominican friary. In 1544 it was burnt down by an English army and rebuilt as the parish church of St Monans in1646. By 1772 it was in a ruinous condition and only partially occupied until its major restoration in 1826-8 by the architect William Burn. A further restoration of the interior was undertaken in 1955. From the 14th century and into the 20th century St Monans was essentially a fishing village. Centred as it was on the harbour, fishing and boatbuilding had a direct influence on the development and character of the historic village. From the 16th century until well into the 18th century St Monans had separate fishing and farming communities, the Lower or Nethertown and the Upper or Overtown respectively, the latter located just north of Braehead. A second area of industry was centred on the mines and saltpans to the east of the village. However these communities remained largely separate and there was little direct impact on the development of the character and appearance of the historic village. St Monans was created a burgh of barony with a free port and harbour on the grant of a charter from James VI to his tenant in chief William Sandilands of St Monans in 1596. The original harbour pier, on site of the current middle one, was built by Baron Newark in the mid-15th century. Herring had been fished on the Forth from medieval times. From the 17th century there was off-shore great-line fishing for white fish; with herring fishing in the autumn and spring. The industry was particularly vulnerable with fish periodically becoming scarce. Young men traditionally also joined the whaling fleets, returned in the autumn for the herring and then crewed on private ships during the winter. St Monans was for much of this formative period in its development, the poorest of the East Neuk Burghs and the one most dependent on a single industry, namely fishing. Women and girls worked at baiting the lines and making nets. Many of the men and boys were away at sea for much of the year. St Monans, as a consequence, became an isolated community, both socially and geographically. In 1877 the old west pier was demolished and a new harbour again surveyed, designed and constructed by lighthouse engineers, brothers, Thomas and David Stevenson. Finally, in 1902 a new pier was built to the west. However, after the Great War the Scottish fishing industry entered a period of serious decline.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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