Elie in East Neuk of Fife

Enjoy the Wonderful Sands of Elie on the Fife Coastal Path

Elie and Earlsferry are more or less tied together by two lovely sandy beaches. At low tide, the beach turns into the most wonderful stretch of shoreline you've ever seen. Elie is another very small place in East Neuk.

The Bakery in Elie

Elie's got a lovely bakery just across the street from the Elie Parish Church (to its left when coming from the beach). It's tiny but the home baked scones and cakes are simply amazing. I've never tasted a better bridie in my life. It wouldn't be the first time I'll go back to a place for the food! As most businesses in the area, the bakery is family-run.

Elie doesn't need a supermarket as there is one in Anstruther (6 3/4 miles along the Fife Tourist Route). They have everything they need: a post, a bank, a baker, a butcher and even a tourist information centre. However, it's the walk from Elie to St Monans that proved to be most interesting as you will see later on.

Elie Beach - The Golden Sands of Fife

There are only several stretches of sand along the Fife Coastal Walk The one in Elie is by far the best and not just for the kids who can go mad running around the beach. We arrived in Elie at 10 in the morning at low tide time. Despite it being a pretty dull and misty day we've managed to learn quite a bit about the place by having a brief chat with a local.

Elie is another village-turned-into-resort type of place and the harbour clearly shows tourists' interest in sailing and surfing The granary standing right at the end of the causeway running from the town to the harbour has been recently turned into expensive flats by a company in Edinburgh.

The location of the flats didn't strike me as particularly safe because of frequent strong winds in the area Nearly all houses on the beach or close by need new tiles every so often because of strong gales. So I wonder, what sort of maintenance does the granary in the harbour require?.

Elie Lighthouse - First Lighthouse in East Neuk

Elie Parish Church

The sandy beaches at low tide

Lady's Tower on Coastal Path

Dolphins just off the Fife coast

From the beach you get a good view of an old chapel just before Earlsferry that once provided shelter for pilgrims headed to St Andrews.

The first notable thing on the Elie - St Monans walking path is the lighthouse. It's a very small lighthouse compared to the majority on Scotland's coast. However, it is well kept and offers great views of Elie and its harbour.

There are plenty of seats so you can stop and have a picnic any time you like. One building in particular that stands out in Elie is the "Castle", in South Street that dates back to the 15-16th century.

After a 10 minute walk or so, we come to Lady's Tower, an 18th century summerhouse built for Lady Janet Anstruther There is a fair bit left of the tower and although a ruin, it's an attractive one.

She used it every time she went bathing and used its rocky vault to change. She always had a bellman walk through the streets of Elie telling people to stay away.

Dolphins and Seals on the Coastal Path

By an amazing coincidence, the moment we arrived at Lady's Tower, a motorboat passed by quite close to the shore in the direction of St Monans. Behind it, we noticed several dolphins At first we only saw around 4 but as moments passed, we noticed there were many more, maybe in the region of 20, adult and young ones alike. Seeing a group of 20 dolphins so close to the shore, and obviously in their own element was a wonderful experience.

Wildlife on the Elie - St Monans Path

On the section between Elie and St Monans there is even more wildlife, this time seals. The tide was well out when I was there and from the coastal path it was impossible to see them but you could clearly hear them. It shows you that Fife's coastline is endowed with many surprises just waiting to be discovered.