Tour Scotland 4K short Spring travel video, with Scottish bagpipes music, of a morning road trip drive along Shore Street on ancestry, genealogy, family history visit to St Monans in the East Neuk of Fife, Britain, United Kingdom. The majority of buildings on Shore Street are built in the characteristic East Neuk vernacular style, with pantiled roofs and raised gable skews, some with corbie or ‘crow-steps’. Walls are generally constructed in sandstone rubble, left exposed or sometimes painted, or finished in a modern smooth painted render. The dominant roofing material is a traditional clay pantile. Slate easing courses can be seen on a number of pantile roofs probably to provide better rain and wind protection over the eaves and wall heads. Another benefit would have been to spread and slow the rain water run-off from the pantile roof to allow it to be better caught in the gutters. Few of the forestairs, which many of the 18th and 19th century buildings would have had, survive, making those that do of particular significance. Living accommodation would often have been on the first floor with a boat store and workshop and sail store on the ground floor. In the late 19th century when fishing gear became bulkier, lofts were utilised and hoists installed. The Battle of St Monans was fought in June 1548, just eight months after the slaughter of Scots at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh near Musselburgh. At the time, the English were pursuing their brutal Rough Wooing campaign against Scotland, partly to break the alliance with France but also in an attempt to force the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots and Henry VIII’s son, Edward. I was raised in the East Neuk. 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. 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.St Monans was created a burgh of barony with a free port and harbour on the grant of a charter from King 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. 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. The date for astronomical spring is Sunday 20th March 2022, ending on Tuesday 21st June, while by the meteorological calendar, spring will start on Tuesday 1st March. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day. When driving in Scotland slow down and enjoy the trip @tourscotland #scotland #bagpipes #music #drivingtrip #spring
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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