Tour Scotland 4K early Autumn travel video, with Scottish music, of a short road trip drive along the High Street on ancestry, genealogy, family history visit to Elie, East Neuk of Fife, Britain, United Kingdom. Before the 19th century, the oldest infrastructure sat further south along South Street, where buildings backed directly onto the beach. The main thoroughfare passing through Elie was transformed in 1810 when it was constructed as a modern turnpike road. This new road connected the west from Balchrystie junction out toward a 1790s turnpike heading to Kirkcaldy and Crail. To fund its maintenance, two toll houses were built along the path: one at Broomlees and another at the eastern edge of Toll Green. Both toll structures were demolished shortly after Fife officially abolished road tolls in 1878. The lack of industrial factory growth allowed the High Street to retain an uninterrupted footprint of domestic and commercial artisan stonework. Elie became a Burgh of Barony in 1589 under the Lairds of Ardross. As such Elie was forbidden to engage directly in foreign trade and was dependent on the Laird of Ardross who controlled the Town Council and Court. Elie is part of the Fife Coastal Hiking Path. In recent decades, the town has become a very popular destination for wealthy residents of Glasgow and Edinburgh who have purchased house by the beach and sea. The film The Winter Guest, starring Emma Thompson and Phyllida Law, directed by Alan Rickman, was filmed here. From his home in the Fife burgh of Elie, Alexander Gillespie and his wife and business partner Christian Small, planned their trading ventures. Until 1676, Gillespie voyaged throughout Europe in his ship the Anna, to Norway for timber; into the Baltic for iron, flax, hemp, and oaken boards; London, England, and Rotterdam for manufactured goods and luxury items such as furniture, tobacco, garden seeds, and hoods and bells for hawks. The most profitable cargo for Gillespie, but one which involved the greatest risk and outlay, was wine from Bordeaux, which fetched the best price if it could be unloaded at Leith in time for Hogmany. Gillespie’s outward cargoes were mainly coal and salt from the Firth of Forth, though occasionally he carried human cargoes too, such as a contingent of soldiers, which he delivered to Dieppe in 1671. They were probably about to participate in the projected Anglo French invasion of Holland. Gillespie made detailed notes about navigation, information about hazards and havens, landmarks and reefs, depths of water and even the character of the seabed, which he sampled from the tallow filled hollow at the head of a sounding lead. Such knowledge was stock in trade for a Shipmaster, and Gillespie would have added his observations to a much wider body of information passed down to him through the generations. For coasting seafarers such knowledge was more reliable, and much cheaper, than a chart. Shipmasters often drew little pictures of what particular pieces of coast looked like from the sea, marking landmarks such as church towers or windmills. In 1676 Gillespie went to Rotterdam for six months to supervise the building of a new ship, the James. The James was a larger ship than the Anna, carrying up to 120 tons of cargo, and through her Gillespie amassed the fortune which allowed him, in his final years, to become a country gentleman. None of his descendants followed him into seafaring careers. The Fife Coastal Walking Path, which passes through Elie, is a Scottish long distance walking footpath that runs from Kincardine to Newburgh. It runs for 117 miles along the coastline of Fife. The path would take around one week to walk completely from end to end. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day. Find things to see and do in Scotland where you are always welcome. When driving on Scottish roads in Scotland slow down and enjoy the trip. Meteorological Autumn or Fall is different from standard and astronomical Autumn and begins September 1 and ends November 30
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.
No comments:
Post a Comment