Crail: History and Guide, The Story of an Ancient Scottish Burgh

by Trevor Smith

Crail in the East Neuk of Fife is celebrated as having one of the most picturesque harbours in Britain, set in a beautiful, biologically and geologically rich coastline, but less well known is Crail’s long and colourful history now brought to life in this book.
Trevor Smith begins by discussing the activity of pre-historic hunter-gatherers in nearby Fife Ness, then visits Constantine’s and Caiplie caves with their early Christian symbols and long history of human habitation.
He unearths some of the oldest written references to Crail, and looks at the history of St Mary’s Church, with its graveyard memorials, and the symbolism of the 8th century Pictish cross slab.
The book discusses Crail’s former prosperity as an international trading centre, its weekly market ratified by Robert the Bruce, and its fluctuating success as a fishing village, while emphasising the dangerous nature of the coastline with which mariners have had to contend.
We witness the effects of plague and civil war in the mid 1600’s, and the shameful witch hunts.
In the 1880’s, Crail’s legendary isolation was broken by the arrival of the railway, when it re-invented itself as an immensely popular holiday & golfing resort, in which Crail Golfing Society played a significant part.
Crail’s twentieth century history is dominated by the role during World War II and beyond of its now abandoned airfield at Balcomie currently the venue for motor sports and car boot sales.
The book ends with some bedtime reading - a swashbuckling account of a duel between master swordsman, Sir William Hope of Balcomie, and his French counterpart. Full of fascinating insights into the life of earlier centuries in Crail, this book is essential reading for residents and visitors alike.

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 12, 2010

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