Fife Coastal Path (March)

PLEASE NOTE: The GPX trace on this route is for use as a guide only, its accuracy may change depending on the scale of map you are using. Use in combination with judgement and a paper map. We have taken all reasonable steps to ensure these walks are safe and correctly described. However things do change and all outdoor activities involve a degree of risk. The publishers accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions or for any injuries or accidents that occur whilst following this walk. Trail magazine, Copyright Bauer Media Limited.

Distance 10.5km (6 1/2 miles)
Total ascent 100m
Time 3 1/2 hours
Start/Finish Crail main street near East Neuk Hotel (N0612075)
Nearest town St Andrews
Terrain tracks and paths, some quite rough along foreshore.
Public transport Stagecoach bus 95 to St. Andrews hourly, takes 20 mins 0871 200 2233 Guidebook Along the Fife Coastal Path by Hamish Brown,pb Mercat Press
Accommodation East neuk villages - Elie, St Monace, Pittenweem, Anstruther and Crail - all have delightful B&Bs. on the walk, sauchope Links Caravan Park takes tents (01333) 450460 www.caravan-leisure-park.co.uk
Tourist info Crail Museum, opens April (01333) 450869; www. visitScotland.com, 0845 225 5121; see also www. fifecoastalpath.co.uk; tide times at www. britishbeaches.info 
Best grub East Neuk Hotel (01333) 450225 for its fish specials menu

To examine the UK’s geology while scrambling, you go high, to the hilltops. Or else you go low, to the zero contour.  All around the shoreline our rocks are on display, constantly carved by the sea. As it happens, the UK’s mountain rocks are mostly old and mangled. The younger rocks, the sedimentary rocks, the rocks with the fossils, the best place to see them is at the sea. The coast of Fife dates from the Carboniferous, the coal time. It’s when the UK was drifting northwards across the equator, a stinky swamp of giant ferns, giant frogs and dragonflies the size of seagulls. Fossils can be hard to spot – but not at Crail, where there’s a fossil tree stump a metre and more across. Alongside it are fragments of ancient timber 


Geology Lesson

- Fossil tree: 200m south of the harbour, under water at high tide (so visit at the start or the end of the walk to suit)
- Millipede footprints: 30m beyond the fossil tree, above the high tide line, a couple of metres up low cliffs
- Limestone and sandstone can contain standard Carboniferous fossils: shells (Bryozoans), crinoids (sea lilies), coral.   Ammonites can occur but are uncommon.
- Dolerite intrusions: volcanic rock squeezed in between the limestone/sandstone strata.  The dolerite is columnar, with natural jointing at right angles to the limestone/sandstone. See also Isle of May, offshore.



NO612075 Head north-east along the main street then on past Crail Museum. In 200m, turn left; before the church gate on the left is the dolerite lump flung by the Devil. Behind the church, go through the gate gap on the right into the newer graveyard. Keep right here on a path down into a wood, to turn sharp left beside a stream. The path emerges on a grassy track to north of the church.

NO613081 Turn right passing the overflow graveyard.  The track meets a dirt track with a caravan site ahead. Turn left, then bend to the right to run north, on a grassy path between fields. It meets a wider track at the edge of a disused airfield.

NO615090 Turn left on this new track.  After 200m it bends to the right, then joins a tarred track, which runs past Wormiston farm to arrive above the shore. Pass down the field edge to the shoreline.

NO621106 A gate on the right starts the coast footpath. It’s unclear at first, so just walk the shingle or the grassy bank above the high tide mark. In 1km reach the corner of the golf course. The path becomes slightly clearer, to pass along the back of a large beach. Ignore a wide path inland (through the golf course), but take the wide shoreline path ahead. It passes below Constantine’s Cave, where an early King ofScotland was killed by the Danes – the cave itself is a former sea cave now about 5m above sea-level due to land uplift at the end of the Ice Age.

NO633101 The shoreline passes the old beacon, and joins a tarmac access road to the ugly Fife Ness lighthouse. The path passes around the outside of the lighthouse buildings then runs slightly up from the shoreline. After 500m it enters the Kilminning Nature Reserve, and dips to the raised beach terrace just above the shore.  It passes the small seastack, Kilminning Castle, then leaves the reserve. As the path passes the seaward side of some beach chalets, a 3m ironstone concretion is embedded in some foreshore rocks below.

NO628084 The path soon joins the tarred driveway through a caravan site. At its end, keep ahead on a path signed for the beach. 

NO610072 Where a smooth slab slants down across your way, stop just before it and you should be right beside the fossil tree stump. Millipede footprints are 20m further, up on the right.