A Visit to Fife’s East Neuk – Pittenweem
We arrived at Pittenweem mid afternoon and parked in the parking bays at the head of the harbour. The day was still bright and pleasant and we walked along towards the big shed where the catches are landed and sold. The harbour was full of colourful little fishing boats mostly painted blue or red. There were nets and big rusty plates, big crates and floats and other gear piled up or stretched out on the harbour arms. The pub doors were open and conversation leaked out onto the street. One of the warehouse units was open and men were hosing down fishing boxes and piling them up in a fairly desultory fashion. Parked in front of the open warehouse doors were a couple of refrigerated lorries.
As I walked along the piers taking photograph after photograph, boats started to head out past the harbour arms, past the marker lights, going out to sea, a helmsman standing in the wheel house and sometimes a man moving gear on the cramped decks as the boats sailed out.
Eventually, we pulled ourselves away from the harbour to walk along the shore street. The rocks on the shore here are as startling and jagged as the rocks at St Monans, the reef rocks running like terrifying monster teeth away to sea.
It was pleasant to saunter slowly along the shore road past the old houses, but the road peters out and gives way to a path past farmland quite quickly. The houses here at the far end are really exposed to the full force of the sea and living in one in the teeth of a Southerly or South Westerly gale must be interesting.
On our way back, we wandered up a side street in response to a sign to St Fillans Cave. The cave itself is set into a small cliff face and is guarded by a big gate with steel bars and kept locked although if you want to explore it a notice informs you that the key can be obtained in a nearby shop. We peered through the bars to the big cave which is slopes gently downwards. There appears to be some kind of an altar at the bottom of the cave, and there seems to be an entrance to a smaller cave or room to the left of the altar. Outside on the street is a big painted stone, and at the left hand side on the wall near the entrance is a large mosaic with Christian symbols. The place is clearly well looked after. If we had had more time we would have had a look around.
We wandered past the car and headed for the other end of the harbour. The harbour walls at the old house that sits just off the harbour are over 40 feet thick tailing down to about 25 feet as they go seawards. My wife informed me later that this may have been to keep (English?) cannon balls from destroying it! There are numbered flat stones built into this harbour arm. I have since learned that these were to order the fishing boats catches as they were landed.
The architecture is typical of almost all the small towns and villages along the Fife coast from Culross to St Andrews with the many stone faced or white harled houses with red pantiled roofs. The street layout is apparently anarchic with little side lanes taking sudden twists or leading into sheltered courtyards; very much a reflection of a town or village that evolved organically rather than being planned.
Pittenweem is the only active fishing port left on the coast of Fife although now the catches are mainly of shellfish rather than fish. This gives the town a real sense of purpose and life. It is also very pretty and well worth a visit.
| I am a part time web designer and keen photographer. My interest in web design was sparked off by some work I had to do during my degree in computing and the photography stems from the need to provide good images for the websites. The site I have been working on for the holiday house which sparked off these visits can be seen at http://fifecoastalcottages.co.uk |