Fife Pilgrim Way - Part 4
Markinch to Ceres
The
Fife Pilgrim Way is a new long distance walking path, following in the footsteps of medieval pilgrims coming from Culross or North Queensferry to see the relics of St Andrew. Over several weekends I am trying to run the route, and find out a bit about the local history on the way. The last leg brought me from
Lochore to Markinch. Today it was onward to Ceres.
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| Markinch Church |
Markinch to Kennoway
It was a grey and foggy morning when I left Markinch, and although the rain stayed off all day, it had been raining heavily for several days beforehand making much of the path muddy or awash with water. Much of the path in this section is along the grassy verge of fields meaning there wasn't much solid ground between the towns. It is November and that is what you would expect so I was ready for it, but I did enjoy a hot bath and a scrub at the end of the day.
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| Former Haig Distillery, Markinch |
Leaving Markinch the path heads east out of town through open countryside, staying north of the road that goes into Milton of Balgonie. You can't see it from the Fife Pilgrim Way, but the striking red brick building of the former
Haig bottling plant and whisky bond is the first thing you see when you drive out of this side of Markinch. It was once a big employer for Markinch people. The Haig distillery started prodution of its whisky in nearby Cameron Bridge in 1824. The grassy path continues through farmland here until it reaches Windygates in about 3 miles, with flocks of geese coming and going to eat in the fields nearby as I came along this way.
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| The path out of Markinch |
Diageo still has a large bottling facility a few miles further east from here, in Leven. Much of the wheat grown in this part of Fife ends up being turned into spirit, vodkas and Gordon's Gin in
Cameron Bridge Distillery just south of Windygates. Apparently this is Europe's largest grain distillery and it was briefly visible to the south through the fog as I approached the outskirts of Windygates. Just beyond it lies
Cameron Bridge Hospital (or Cameron Brig Hospital if you are a local). Although this is no longer its role, it opened as an infectious disease hospital in 1912. When the first four wards were built, the old Haig House was used as the administrative block. This building still stands, and was built by the Haig family in 1849. It became the home of
Field Marshal Earl Haig, who was born in 1861. The hospital was expanded in the 1930s, and then again in 1955 when a TB treatment unit was added.
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| Two coos and Cameron Bridge Distillery |
The path comes to Windygates, where it turns north to head through the town of Kennoway. On the southern outskirts of Kennoway, to the right hand side of the road sits an odd hill. This is not a pit bing. This is Kennoway Motte, usually called
Maiden Castle, an artificially created medieval mote-hill for a
motte-and-bailey style castle. This has traditionally been associated with
Macduff, Thane of Fife, who hailed from hereabouts. One tower of the more substantial
Macduff Castle still sits at East Weymss four miles to the south. In Shakespeare's
Macbeth play it is Macduff, who "from his mother's womb untimely ripped" kills the tyrannical king in the final act.
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| Maiden Castle, Kennoway |
The real Macduff, like the real Macbeth, is difficult to unpick from the mythical character immortalised by Shakespeare. Macbeth was the King of Scots from 1040 (after killing King Duncan I in battle near Elgin) until his own death in 1057. He had made frequent raids into Northumbria, and it was the nephew of Siward, Earl of Northumbria, Duncan's son Malcolm Canmore, that replaced Macbeth as King of the Scots and became Malcolm III. This is the same
Malcolm that moved the royal residence to Dunfermline upon taking the throne in 1058. Macbeth was defeated by Malcolm's forces at the
Battle of Lumphanan in 1057. This Lumphanan is in Aberdeenshire, not the Lumphinnans in Fife near to Lochgelly, famed for having a street named
Gagarin Way in honour of the Soviet Cosmonaut.
The
Clan MacDuff website has Macduff, Thane of Fife as the slayer of Macbeth, bringing his severed head to Malcolm. Thane as a title is an early version of Earl. Whatever MacDuff's actual involvement in the defeat of Macbeth was, he was rewarded by the newly crowned king by being raised to Senior Earl of Scotland, elevating the MacDuffs to become the second most important family in Scotland, and granting them lands in Fife. It was a
MacDuff that placed the crown on King Malcolm III's head.
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| Old weavers' cottages in Kennoway |
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| A former mill sluice in Kennoway Den |
Kennoway was a former staging post on the stage horse road between St Andrews and the coast at Kinghorn. It later became a mill town, with several mills along the Kennoway Burn. As the town was largely rebuilt in the 1940s to house miners for pits in the surrounding area, little evidence of the old town survives but the Fife Pilgrim Way deviates from the main road to pass some former weavers cottages on The Causeway. There was a proposal for Kennoway to become Fife's New Town in the 1940s, before
Glenrothes was chosen in preference. Like other towns in this part of Fife that housed many miners in the twentieth century, the closure of the Fife coalfield brought unemployment and hardship to the town.
I took a detour off of the Fife Pilgrim Way to follow the path through Kennoway Den, alongside Kennoway Burn. The word den describes a ravine, a hollow with sloping sides and this Den was busy with dog walkers when I visited. Several footbridges cross the Kennoway Burn, the oldest dating from 1704. Some old wells and caves can be found here too and the Den Green, that was used to bleach linen in the sunshine in the weaving times.
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| The burn was pretty full in Kennoway Den after a few days of heavy rain |
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| A colourful totem pole in Kennoway with mining motifs among other carvings |
Henry McLeish, former First Minister of Scotland, grew up in Kennoway, born to a mining family. He started playing football here, progressing to play at East Fife FC.
Kennoway to Ceres
After leaving Kennoway the path again skirts the edge of fields, forests and farm buildings as it heads towards Ceres, 9 miles away. There may be lovely views on clear days here, there may not, but I couldn't tell you. By this point the fog was closing in and the path was very heavy underfoot. The last time I got into such deep fog in Fife was in 2013.
Cowdenbeath were beating Partick Thistle 2-1 by the time fog descended and the match had to be abandoned. Partick Thistle won the re-arranged fixture, which probably saved our season that year, so Fife fog is filled with happy memories for me.
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| Farm buildings near Kennoway |
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| Clatto Reservoir, looking very atmospheric in the fog |
Clatto Reservoir once provided the water supply for Cupar, but no longer and is now used for recreational brown trout fishing.There were plenty of fungi around too, enjoying the damp conditions. I would love to know which mushrooms are safe and which are deadly, but as a risk-averse individual I think I'll just stick to buying them in shops. On holiday in Sweden a few years ago the farmer who was renting us a cottage told us to help ourselves to any mushrooms we gathered with the re-assuring phrase "most of them aren't poisonous." To me this phrase rings alarm bells in the same way as a light bulb that's not working in a horror movie basement scene does.
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| The path mostly runs along the field edges... |
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| ...but can become muddy after heavy rain |
For the last mile heading into Ceres The Waterless Way was not living up to its name, but once you are covered in mud a wee bit more doesn't really make much difference. This is just a reminder that you are following a path in Scotland, where the weather can contribute to the challenges of any route.
Ceres
Ceres (pronounced as you would 'series') is a dwarf planet that orbits in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is also an ancient village in Fife. The road from Kennoway to Ceres was called The Waterless Way, which I presume was medieval shorthand for "no service station for 9 miles". It did not follow the course of any streams or rivers, as paths usually did. The medieval pilgrims that came along this route on their way to St Andrews would stop for one last night in Ceres, weary and in need of refreshment. The current parish church stands on the site of an older one and marks the spot where Christianity has been worshiped for over 1000 years. Pilgrims would stop to pray and receive a blessing here before embarking on the last leg of their trip. In the 1500s
Scotstarvit Tower just west of the village was built by the Inglis family, and is looked after by Historic Scotland.
Ceres struck me as a very handsome and well-to-do village, with many old buildings still being used and in a good state of repair. Those in need of refreshment can find it in the couple of hotels in town, or in the tearooms at the
Fife Folk Museum, which sits in some former weavers cottages and the old tolbooth building by the Ceres Burn. The museum itself closes over the winter months. After the Hopes of Craighall made Ceres a Barony in 1620 it became a busy market town, and the tolbooth was built in 1673, a prison cell in the basement and a weigh house above. Standard weights were kept here for use on market days to prevent fraud, and the carving of some goods being weighed above the door carries the motto (or warning) "God Bless The Just".
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| The Weigh House, Ceres |
Ceres is home to the oldest Highland Games in Scotland, which started in 1315, the year after the
Battle of Bannockburn. It was organised to celebrate the men of the village that had fought there, and a memorial to the Ceres men that fought in Bannockburn sits in the centre of the village.
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| Playing fields in the centre of the village |
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| Memorial erected in 1914 on the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn |
An old bridge crosses the burn near to the Folk Museum,
Bishop's Brig. The bridge gets its name from
Archbishop Sharpe who was murdered shortly after crossing this bridge, in 1679. In the 17th century
The Covenanters organised opposition to Episcopalian changes brought by the Stuart kings to their Presbyterian Scottish church. The national Covenant was signed by a large gathering in Greyfriars graveyard in Edinburgh in 1638 and their uprising was at times bloody and brutally suppressed, largely coming to an end with the rule of King William of Orange in the late 17th century.
In the face of Presbyterian resistance, James Sharpe was appointed Archbishop of St Andrews and Primate of Scotland in 1661. At attempt on his life was made in Edinburgh in 1668. His would-be assassin was imprisoned on Bass Rock and became a martyr to some when executed in 1678. In 1679 Archbishop Sharpe was making his way back to St Andrews. When his coach left Ceres, the group of Covenanters who had been informed of his presence, caught up with his coach at Magus Muir, between Ceres and St Andrews. His coachman was shot and Sharpe was dragged from the carriage by a group of nine Covenanters and stabbed multiple times by them.
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| Bishop's Brig, Ceres |
Another curio in the town is the statue known as The Provost, though it looks more like a Toby Jug. He was hidden behind a lorry whilst some builders put up scaffolding when I passed. The work of local stonemason John Howie, born in 1820, it is meant to be a likeness of "the Provost of Ceres", the Reverend Thomas Buchanan, minister of Ceres from 1578-1599.
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| The Provost, Ceres |
I will definitely make an effort to come back in the summertime to see Ceres and visit the museum, it looks a perfect place for a lazy stroll and a pub lunch. I would also like to come back to visit the shop of potter
Griselda Hill, who works here producing Weymss Ware. Another time. For now it was a case of getting back to Glasgow. I haven't quite got my head around all the intricacies of the Fife public transport system, but I decided that for me the speediest way to get home was to grab a roll and a can of ginger from the Spar on the Main Street and walk the three miles to Cupar to catch the hourly train service south. A pavement and less fog on the road would have made it a more relaxing walk.
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| The road to Cupar. |
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