by 
Village of Limekilns
I sat at home and thought for a long time about where I should go for a walk again and decided that the best way to spend time was to walk around a village. And not just a village, but a village that is located on the seashore. I looked at the map and decided to go to the south coast of Fife and one small village called Limekilns caught my attention. It is 3.5 miles from Dunfermline.
I set off on a regular bus from the main bus station in Edinburgh. Well, I enjoyed the views of the city from the window. In general, Scottish architecture is a bizarre, and at the same time harmonious mix of many eras, each of which contributes something to the general appearance of the cities of this country. The first buildings in Scotland appeared about 9,500 years ago. The architecture of Scotland has acquired its own identity since then and is an example of the unique integration of building exteriors in the general cultural layer of the state.
There are beautiful views from the Forth Road Bridge overlooking the bay itself. The Forth Road Bridge, at the time of its opening in 1964, was the longest suspension bridge in Europe and the fourth longest in the world. The central span is 1,006 metres long and is flanked by side spans which are each 400 metres long. In total, the length of the structure exceeds 2.5 km.
Well, here I am in the city of Dunfermline. It is the ancient capital of Scotland and the Royal Burgh, the final resting place of several kings of Scotland and the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie. This city is famous for the Carnegie Museum and Dunfermline Abbey. By the way, you can see a tour of this abbey on my YouTube channel.
And so I approach a village, a village located on the seashore.
Walk along the embankment
I start a walk along the embankment. Oh, how long it is… long! I look forward, left and right and it seems there is no end to it. But this is of course a deceptive feeling, the size of the village is modest. If you stand with your back to the bay very close on the left, is a “neighbour”- the relatively young village of Charlestown. It looks like there is some kind of industrial area to the right of Limekilns – I don’t quite understand what kind of land it is.
It turns out that Limekilns is an oasis of Scottish countryside flavour: the settlement is surrounded on two sides by nature: a wide bay and dense forest. The feeling of solitude did not leave me all day as I leisurely examined the village.
Speaking of beaches, the Limekilns coastline is relatively short compared to the eastern shores of Scotland which is washed by the North Sea Bay! The total length of the “U”-shaped coast is about 150 kilometres. The bay is cut 77 kilometres inland and the open loop of the Firth of Forth stretches from Fife in the north to East Lothian, West Lothian, Falkirk and the City of Edinburgh in the south.
That’s why it seems when you look at the embankment of the village that it goes off into infinity. These are the associations which arose in me.
And first the question arises – “how to get to the water?” Here and there (I didn’t understand why then), but up to the edge of the water surface of the bay was a decently wide strip of sandbank. And along it you can walk and walk to the edge of the water surface of the Firth of Forth. I didn’t dare because it seemed to me that behind the fence there was either a swamp or some kind of swamp which was overgrown with cheerful vegetation.
But, walking along the fences, you can still find safe access to the water. And I was even confused: how come the locals don’t go swimming or fishing or anything? How do they get into their yachts, which are standing in some kind of liquid?
I even posed this question to a passerby. The answer turned out to be logical, but not too obvious to me: during my visit the tide simply happened to be low. And so, twice a day, the Firth of Forth receives tides of up to 6 metres high.
“So this is where this damp land on the strip between the bay and the embankment fence comes from!”
What was the first thing that came before my eyes and to mind when I stepped foot on the land of Limekilns? No, not mud instead of water near the embankment.
My first impressions were: “Oh, this is beauty!” and “God, she’s like a toy!” The houses here are very well-kept and in general there is cleanliness and some kind of exemplary order.
And it’s not crowded. You can wander calmly through the quiet streets and absorb the energy of peace: as if the whole village is immersed in some kind of dream. Yes, it is, in fact. Limekilns is just another sleepy coastal village in Scotland.
Even the new residential complexes built in the 1970’s and 1980’s during the construction boom cannot save the situation. The village, like its population, has increased significantly, but the bustle and effect of urbanization have hardly increased.
And that’s not bad at all! After the big bustling cities, this is the perfect place to feel calm and carefree.
It’s really worth coming here again for this blissful leisurely pace, it’s as if you’re entering another dimension, honestly.
By the way, about the “other dimension” – I got that impression from the first few minutes. And all because Limekilns is a very, very old settlement. No joke, this village appeared in the 14th century as a fishing port settlement near the harbour, next to Gouts, a ridge of rocks! Ships carrying goods to France and back docked here until the 17th century.
So it’s normal to feel almost physically the layering of seven hundred years in this one place.
If anyone doesn’t know, the name “Limekilns” is not so much a proper name as a designation for quite real things: “limestone kilns” – this is exactly what “Limekilns” refers to in English.
I wondered what stoves have to do with anything when I first learned about this village.
It turned out that almost from the dawn of its existence, the village actively used a natural resource – its own limestone deposits. It has been applied to the soil of Limekilns for centuries as fertilizer and mortar was prepared from the limestone. Lime dissolved in water firmly cements the stones – all the old buildings in the village are built with it!
Raw lime was also burned and exported on a huge scale to other places in Scotland. To this end huge coal furnaces were built at Limekilns in the 1750’s along the coast towards Charlestown. The ruins still stand there.
I was incredibly lucky with the weather. The sun was shining brightly and except for light clouds nothing else obscured the piercing blue sky.
The air temperature was completely flawless of course, if you are wearing, in addition to your dress, a light, windproof jacket. So even a slight breeze did not cause me any discomfort and this is taking into account many hours of walking in the fresh air!
Did my expectations of Limekilns come true? More than that: the village turned out to be very nice! Most likely the secret to the charm of Limekilns is its old age, privacy and proximity to a natural body of water. Still, the Firth of Forth is impressive and the breathtaking views from the embankment make your heart beat faster.
It is an ideal place for lonely and romantic walks, for meditation and self-discovery. See those cool benches overlooking the bay? I sat on one of them for half an hour, peered into the silver horizon, breathed in the slightly salty fresh air deeply which smelled of the sea and listened to the distant splash of cold waves.
…Oh, what a wonderful trip it turned out to be, I didn’t expect that Limekilns would resonate so much in my heart with an inexplicable longing for something so original and real. Some kind of port romance in country style with a Scottish accent.
…Perhaps I’ll add this exotic village to my personal list of the most beautiful places in Scotland where you can relax – with your eyes, soul, and head. And I will definitely come back here again.
