Our trip to Fife, God's Country — It's a funny old world...

Fife is a peninsula in the east of Scotland bounded to the north by the Firth (estuary) of (the river) Tay, to the east by the North Sea, by the Firth of Forth to the south and partially by the Ochil hills to the west.

Fife's internal geography is characterized by extinct volcanic features to the north. The Lomond Hills rise above the western farmland of Kinsoss-shire and Fife and Largo Law does the same in the east. West Lomond is the highest point in Fife at 1,713 ft. The large area of flat land to the north of the Lomond Hills, through which the River Eden flows, is known as the Howe of Fife. Fife still shows signs of its maritime tradition. The region's more industrial past is represented by docks at Rosyth, Burntisland and Kirkaldy in the south. Remnants of the region's fishing history can be visited in the East Neuk (corner) in places like Pittenweem, Anstruther and Crail.

Fife is probably best known these days for the town of St Andrews and its place as the origin of golf and the location of the now famous university. The story of St Andrews is very interesting.

The Gospel of John (apparently) states that Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist. Andrew recognized Jesus as the Messiah and introduce his brother, Simon Peter to him. Andrew is thought to have been crucified upside down, on an X -shaped cross, commonly known as a "Saint Andrew's Cross". Following the sack of Constantinople in 1208, Andrews relics (remains) were dispersed to many locations. Saint Rule may have subsequently collected the relics and traveled to Scotland, where he founded a Christian settlement on the east coast. There is another version that involves transport of relics to Scotland in the eighth century. Whatever, the details, Scotland became an important northern outpost of the Catholic church.

Scotland's non-religious connection to Saint Andrew is thought to have been formed by Angus Macfergus, a Pictish king in the eighth century. He found himself on the wrong end of a border skirmish and after praying to St Andrew was promised victory. Coincidentally, a huge white cross appeared in the blue sky and this inspired Angus's army to win a great victory. Now Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland and the white cross on a blue background is the flag of Scotland.

The shrine housing Andrew's relics attracted kings and princes in the tenth century to Scotland as pilgrims. The pilgrimage to Scotland grew such that by the early twelfth century the small town was struggling to deal with the numbers. King Alexander I of Scotland, recognized the need for a larger church and a system to cope with the visiting pilgrims. Construction started on a new cathedral complex with four main streets leading to it from the east and was dominated by the tower dedicated to St Rule. The new cathedral was one of the largest buildings in Europe. Pilgrims continued to stream in. From the east, they arrived mainly from the continent at North Berwick from where they were ferried to Earlsferry and made the last 15 miles on foot. From the south, pilgrims arrived at what is now know as South Queensferry were ferried across the Firth of Forth to finish the last 50 miles again by foot.

In 1559, John Knox the Protestant reformer, preached a sermon demanding the pillage and destruction of the cathedral. Looting and destruction started that day, and eventually reduced the northern capital of Catholicism to the massive ruins which you can visit today. The 500-year-old tradition of the pilgrimage to St Andrews was at an end.

Enough of the rich and interesting history. Time for more about me. If you ever visit Fife, you'll find out that there is a path that traverses most of the peninsula and when we visited, I cycled a small part of it.

SurPug now lives in God's country as a reward for introducing me to fat-tire riding. I rode him around the East Neuk from the Cambo Estate to Crail and back on a section of the Fife Coastal Path. There are no soaring cliffs here so the ride is flat and follows the coast so closely that it borders some of the most famous golf courses in the world and disappears onto the beaches for short-ish stretches. The images below are fairly representative of the terrain. The underlying geology of south-eastern Fife was formed during the Carboniferous era, about 260 to 360 million years ago. At that time, Scotland was straddling the Equator and the southern half of Fife turned into a part of a massive, Mississippi-like delta, with the sediment-laden river flowing from the massive mountains of the north-east. Those river sediments turned into around 4km of sedimentary rock strata which over time were heaved on their sides und upwards to form the East Neuk’s characteristic coastal rock structures. Those rock shelves that stretch seawards from the shoreline were once lying flat like layered pancakes. The piles of seaweed are typical at this time of year after winter storms have heaved last year's growth and detritus high onto the beach. They'll probably stay there until the equinoxial tides reach and reclaim them.

My ride started and ended at the Cambo Estate. The owners are gradually developing this site into a bit of a nature reserve and natural tourist attraction. The woods are full of snowdrops at this time of year.