Thursday 27 May 2010

Back from my travels!











I needed to get away for a few days so last Thursday I started surfing the net to see if I could find a last minute deal. When I was just about to give up late Friday afternoon I got lucky and managed to book a house for two days on the east coast. Our apartment was the top floor of a victorian town house in the beautiful village of St Monans.  It had only recently been renovated and we were one of the first tenants to use it. I finished working at 4.00pm , went and picked up some groceries, threw some clothes in a case and off we went. Living in such a small country in only took us two hours to get there. Over the two days we visited a few national trust houses, gardens and some of the coastal villages. As usual I have some photographs to share. I hope you enjoy your trip to the east coast of Fife.

This was the view from the apartment window.









The apartment was so nice we didn;t want to come home. Being by the seaside it was full of lovely finishing touches, little fishing boats, birds,driftwood etc and of course if was so peaceful and quiet.




St Monans is a small fishing village on the east coast of Scotland. The 14th century church lies closer to the sea than any other church in Scotland.



The Windmill was built in 1771 for the salt industry. For many years the only remenant left was the stump. It was re-stored and re-roofed in the 1980's.



The final picture is of a Heron. Ian had his tripod all set up eager to get the perfect picture of the bird in flight. I couldn;t stop laughing after standing there for thirty minutes this couple came along and started talking to him, took his eyes off it for seconds and it opened its wings and flew across the rocks. Oops he missed it..LOL.



Elie is another pretty coastal village.



I just loved this cute little blue cottage in the village green.









Lady’s Tower was built sometime after 1750 as a summerhouse for Lady Janet Anstruther who enjoyed bathing naked in the sea. It is reported a bellman was sent round Elie to warn the villagers to keep away. The seashore between Lady’s Tower and Elie Lighthouse is called Ruby Bay as garnets (Elie rubies) are found on its beach.










Pittenweem is home to one of Scotland’s last remaining fishing fleets. It was granted the status of a Royal Burgh by James V in 1541, giving it the right to self government and the right to trade with other countries in return for paying taxes to the crown. By 1587 Pittenween ranked as the twelfth richest town in Scotland. This is where we sat on Saturday night and tucked into a bag of chips (fries) wrapped up in old newspaper. The seagulls always hang around waiting to pick up any remnants.












On our travels we visited the Wemyss Ware studio. I managed to sneak a few photographs inside of the beautiful pottery and how excited was I when I saw the chair with the stitching. It looks too pretty to sit on..lol. Wemyss ware was first produced in 1882 by the Fife pottery, which had been making pottery in muted colours since the 18th century. The world record for a Wemyss piece stands at £34,800 for a rare sleeping pig decorated with roses.














This is Kellie Castle which dates back to the 14th Century and is supposed to be haunted. Like most of the National trust places we visit the flowers in the gardens haven't flowered yet but I still managed to find a few pretties.












Our next property we visited was The Hill of Tarvit, a large mansion house that was built in 1906. I was very disappointed to find that the house was closed and you could only view the gardens. There is a large collection of flemish tapistries inside that I would loved to have viewed.
It has taken me hours to do this post as I need to re-size a lot of photographs before I can post so I have been doing it over a few days, how mad am I to find that when I came back to it today half the original post I had drafted was gone.
Anway for those who are still with me just one more place to visit.











On our way home on Sunday we stopped off at the town of Culross. This is the most complete examples in Scotland of a burgh of the seventeen and eighteenth centuries. It looks like a film set and has been used many times over by film and tv makers to film historical dramas but it is living community housing families like any other town but wow how wonderful it must be to live in these 17th century homes.






























This building is known as Culross Palace even though it was never a royal residence, the word palace was misinterprertated in the title deeds in the 19th century. The building is actually a unique example of a Merchants house. The west block dates from 1597 and the north wing was built in 1611. I apologise for the quality of the pictures , Ian took most of them with his Iphone as we are not really supposed to take photos inside but the first room we entered had the stitching hanging on the wall and the dresses so I just couldn't resist. I;ve never been in a historic property before where there were  no attendants and of course when I saw the stitching lying on the table I was beside myself. All of the stitching was done by the Culross needlework group which was only formed in 1986. They have done an amazing job of producing these pieces. The round stumpwork is part of a bedspread, I didn;t get a picture but it was a four-poster bed where all the hangings around the bed had also been stitched.
Well I hope you have enjoyed coming along on my week-end with me. I must confess I did take my stitching along with me but only did a few stitches on Saturday night. I am way behind on stitching and blog reading, I do miss reading everyones blog when I am away so I am looking forward to catching up on everyone. Hugs!










22 comments:

Annette said...

Wow what a beautifull photo's looks like fun...

Mylene said...

WOW! It looks like you all had fun and what a beautiful place. I really enjoy viewing the pictures and thanks so much for sharing them all.

Sally said...

What beautiful photos Elaine. So glad you had a good time.

Annie said...

What a great trip. These photos are wonderful. I love all the dolls and needlework especially.

Bette said...

What a wonderful weekend! The apartment looks lovely. So glad you were able to get away and have fun.

Cath said...

Lovely pictures , no wonder you didn't want to come home. XXX

Berit said...

What a charming little place you stayed it! Thanks for sharing your pictures; it was lovely seeing it all!

Jules said...

Looks like you had a wonderful trip to the coast!

Meari said...

What a great little vacation!! I can understand why you didn't want to leave :)

Melanie said...

Beautiful photos. Thanks so much for sharing them!

Carol said...

What a wonderful trip you had, Elaine. Thanks for the great travelogue--I really felt as if I was visiting right along with you. I can see why that darling apartment was so hard to leave :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, I can't stand all the beauty of it! I want to go to there!

Erna said...

What a lovely shortbreak, you deserved it....Like the pictues , especially Culross...
Big , big hugs
Er

Michelle said...

Thank you for the lovely pics! Glad you had good weekend - wish I could take a break there :)

Dani - tkdchick said...

What a great little getaway! Thanks for sharing your trip and fantastic pictures!

Catherine said...

What wonderful places you have to visit!! I would have had a hard time leaving!

Love the pottery - especially the two handled cup!!

Blu said...

What an awesome getaway! Thanks for the wonderful pictures! You've definitely done your part in promoting the east coast of Fife!

Lois said...

Looks like you'd a wonderful time. The weather was gorgeous last weekend, wasn't it. Perfect for a few days away. I love where you found to stay!

Nicola said...

Just beautiful! Scotland is on my list of places to travel one day (when my girls get older). I hope to see such sights, you are truly blessed to live in such a beautiful country!

Brigitte said...

Oh Elaine, these pictures are so beautiful. It must have been a dream of a trip and I thank you for sharing it with us.

shutterbug (Elaine) said...

Beautiful pictures! Even the ones from the iphone are good. :) Amy told me that after she looked at these pictures she was ready to pack up and move back to Scotland! I think she was serious..... :)

Carol said...

Looks like you had a wonderful weekend. Thanks for sharing all the photographs. I've been to most of the places you mentioned but I love reading what others have to say about them :)