Salty breezes blow gently, rippling the water along the shore, drying the grasses beside the Fife Coastal Path that were misted with rain just hours earlier.  Even though it is August the air is cool on the east coast of Scotland.  Sunshine dapples sapphire waters making it hard to tell where the sky ends and the sea begins.

Extending seventy-eight miles from the Forth Bridge near Edinburgh, passing through St. Andrews, the home of golf and its famed courses, to the Tay Bridge at Dundee, the trail wends its way through the enchanting villages of the East Neuk, past churches, castles, harbours and those ubiquitous British pubs.  

Join the path at any point along the way and if your legs give out, or you’ve tipped too many a pint, you can easily hop a bus or a train to take you back from whence you came. 

Meander past a windmill and walk gingerly along rocky shores speculating if the tide is ebbing or flowing; it’s hard to tell without a tide table! Whitewashed cottages look as crisp as the laundry on their clotheslines, snapping in the wind. A church’s spire rises from the center of town.  A general rule in Scotland, where there’s a church there’s a pub!  Follow that steeple!

In the picturesque village of Anstruther you might see local lads freefall from the harbour wall, their lithe bodies plopping one at a time into the chilly waters some twenty feet below. When their heads bob to the surface, teeth chattering, they swim to an iron ladder and nimbly climb up to begin the circuit again.

Look skyward, for the heavens are about to open.  Scotland can’t boast such green pastures without rain.  When hiking the trail, it’s best to be prepared.  But no matter what the weather, its raw beauty is always breathtaking.

© Virginia Foley