Lundin Tower lies just outside the village of Lundin Links to the north west.  The above postcard was sent in 1905, so the image must pre-date that year.  Lundin Tower, as it became known, was once part of the old Lundin House which was demolished in 1876.  The tower itself is thought to date from the late 16th or early 17th century but has had many more recent alterations.  Lundin Tower is described by Historic Scotland as a: 

"6 stage rubble stair tower but with chambers on the 2 upper floors....the tower is parapeted with crenellated angle turrets at the south east and south west; these are corbelled at the upper floors.  A variety of opening of various dates including a Y-traceried window to upper-most chamber. Single storey polygonal projection to south with ogee headed openings and crenellated parapet of 19th century date."

The tower became a category B listed building in 1984 and in 1995 was incorporated into a modern private home.  The more recent photograph was taken post-conversion and is taken from the Lundin Ladies Golf Course.  More in the next post on the history of Lundin House.

In yesterday's post the eventful life of Sir Andrew Wood was briefly covered and the tower shown above was introduced. Standing to the north of Largo House, the tower once formed part of a more extensive building.  Widely believed to be the remains of Sir Andrew's home, the true age of the tower is now questioned. 

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) listing for the building states that while the lands of Largo were granted to Wood in 1482-3 and re-granted in 1491 along with a licence to build a tower or similar building (which Wood had already built by that time), the present tower is thought to date from at least 100 years later.  In 1618 the lands passed to Peter Black and that time frame would suit the building style of the present tower better.  RCAMHS also note that the foundations of the south wall contain traces of a yet older building.  Perhaps these traces are all that remain of Wood's actual home.

Another popular story regards the building of a canal between the tower and Upper Largo, used to transport Wood between home to the Largo Kirk.  Maps refer to 'Canal (remains of)' even in recent times.  However, this part of Sir Andrew's Wood's story seems impossible to verify and for some seems doubtful.  An excavation in 1992 found no  traces of clay, which would be necessary to retain water - concluding that if anything this was a drainage ditch.  Nevertheless, the canal theory certainly adds to the allure of the life story of an undoubtedly great man who played a key role in Scottish history.

It seems certain that when Largo House was built in the mid-18th century that the tower was deliberately retained as a point of interest within the formal gardens. However, over time the structure deteriorated and between 1978 and 1981, the East Neuk Preservation Society stepped in to raise funds and carry out a full restoration, including re-roofing of the tower.  In recent years there has been talk of further restoration.  If you know about the latest plans, please comment.

Sir Andrew Wood was born in the mid 15th century but there are conflicting opinions surrounding where his place of birth was. Some sources say he was born in Leith, but I prefer the version given in the Largo Village Book (published in 1932 by the Largo WRI) which states that his birthplace was Kirkton of Largo (Upper Largo) in a thatched cottage "under the shadow of the church on the knoll".  

What does seem clear is that he became a merchant trader in Leith, before his skills as a sea captain saw him emerge as a brave admiral who commanded two fighting ships named the Flower and the Yellow Carvel. It is reported that he fought and captured 5 English ships close to Dunbar, in response to which a larger English attack followed.  This also ended in victory for Wood despite his being outnumbered. Wood was known well to both  James III and James IV and was knighted by one of them (again conflicting reports exist) .  At some point he was granted land in Largo. He married Elizabeth Lundie, with whom he had several sons. 

Later in life, having overseen her construction and equipment at Newhaven, Sir Andrew became the first Captain of the Great Michael.  Launched in 1511, the Michael was the largest ship of her time, of whom it was said that "all the woods of Fife" were used to build her.  



The date of Wood's death is also uncertain but current thinking is that he died sometime before the end of 1517. He is buried under the floor of Upper Largo Kirk.  An inscription marks the spot and a there is also a window in his memory.

The structure known as Sir Andrew Wood's Tower (see sketch above) stands to the north of Largo House, adjacent to Largo Home Farm.  The derelict stone structure is circular and conically roofed.  It is approximately 17 feet in diameter and 50 feet high.  It contains four floors with one apartment on each floor.  The ground floor chamber is stone vaulted and entered through a door to the South.  The first floor is entered from a higher level to the North, while the second is accessed from a ruinous external stone stair.  It has two windows and a moulded stone fireplace.  The third and top floor has no direct access and was at some stage converted into a dove-cot. Some video footage of the tower can be see on Youtube.  Just as there is ambiguity around the dates and details of Sir Andrew Wood's life, there is also vagueness around the age and origins of the Tower itself.  More on that in the next post...

Founded in 1863, the Largo Field Naturalist's Society was very active in the late 19th century.  At their 1864 AGM, Dr Lumgair presided and the treasurer reported healthy accounts following a successful exhibition at Kiel's Den.  Committee members were elected and among the new members was one Charles Jenner, Esq. of Edinburgh.  Jenner had founded the famous department store on Princes Street in 1838 with fellow draper Charles Kennington.  His connection to the Largo area, may have been through Charles Howie (a seedsman and florist), a fellow member of the Society with whom he took field excursions and published papers on botany.

Jenner regularly donated prizes to be awarded at the Society's annual exhibition.  The Fife Herald of 14 December 1865 covered the monthly meeting of the Largo Field Naturalist's Society.  Henry Petheram of Haworth, Lundin Links was in the chair and the main topic of discussion was the forthcoming exhibition, in which there was much public interest.  The schedule of prizes was agreed  by attendees and printing was given the go-ahead.  Details were then given of several donations received by the Society.  Among them was "a large collection of minerals and specimens of curious rocks" provided by Charles Jenner.  WIlliam Wood of Largo had given "specimens of fossil shells and sea urchins from the English chalk and two varieties of shale from the Methil oil works" and several other interesting items were also listed.      

Charles Jenner was born in Rochester, Kent in 1810, the son of an innkeeper.  He became a draper's apprentice and moved to Edinburgh in 1829.  He worked with Charles Kennington at the drapery firm of W R Spence in Picardy Place but the pair were sacked when they skipped work to attend Musselburgh Races.  They went on the co-found their own department store with Kennington leaving the business to Jenner when he retired in 1861.

Not only a successful businessman, Jenner, like many entrepreneurial Victorians, had great energy and a broad range of interests.  His intellectual pursuits included botany and geology. He also was a great benefactor and contributed to many charities and causes.  Jenner died in 1893.  His younger brother Sir William Jenner was personal physician to Queen Victoria.

Jenner's department store went on to become the oldest independent department store in the world before its acquisition by House of Fraser in 2005.

(watercolour and ink painting by Annie Lynch)

Temple was originally a separate village, set apart from the rest of the Seatoun of Largo. This postcard image captures the idea of the village as its own entity.  The space between Temple and the Cardy Works, which lay at the east end of Seatoun of Largo, was a bleaching green known as Temple Green (now a car park).  However, by the start of the 1900s it was clear that Temple would benefit from better connectivity with its close neighbour.  The Courier of 8 July 1901, in reporting the highlights of the Largo Parish Council meeting, states that "The offer of Mr Strachan to form a road 20 feet wide, with a 3 feet concrete footpath from Cardy House gate to the Temple was accepted." 

Early in the following year, things were progressing as the Evening Telegraph on 6 March described that the Parish Council had received letters from proprietors "agreeing to allow the new road to be made through their gardens at the Temple".  The Council was to renounce all claims to the two old roads but at least some parts of the existing roads were to be re-formed and metalled.  It was thought that the "road to the depot" could be made serviceable by "carting away the loose surface and lowering the brae, and thus save the expense of a tramway."

The new road was duly built in 1903 but some controversy still remained, with two individuals raising an action against the Parish Council, claiming that the new road had been built on their property without consent.  The 6 October Courier in 1903 elaborated that: 

"the pursuers say that, without their knowledge or consent, the Largo Parish Council formed a new public road through the portion of ground forming part of the bleaching green of the Temple of Strathairly, and that the said piece of ground is their private and exclusive property. The Parish Council allege that the ground in question forms part of the old bleaching green of Strathairly, which was appropriated to the use of the feuers of Strathairly as a bleaching green and for other public purposes generally. The pursuer's agent admitted that the ancient boundaries were difficult to determine." 

The case appears to have been dropped and the road still follows the same course today.

T. W. Blyth was born in Perth in 1865 and was an apprentice grocer by age 16 in Kettle, Fife.  The 1891 census finds him (age 26) married and working as a grocer in Auchtermuchty.   However, it must have been in the same year that he moved to the Largo area to set up a Family Grocer in Lundin Mill.  The above advertisement dates from 1897 when he would have been the established grocer in the village at a time when a row of new shops had just been set up on Leven Road.

In May of 1899, Blyth was given a 'complimentary dinner' in Forrester's Private Hotel on the occasion of his leaving the area.  The large gathering was "representative of the leading people resident in the district as well as of the summer visitors from Edinburgh, Glasgow and other centres" according to the Courier of 8 May.  In addition to spending nine years as a merchant in Lundin Mill, Blyth had been known for his "services to the Horticultural Society and his generosity to the poor".  In the course of the various speeches and toasts given, Mr Blyth had remarked that "the happiest time of his life had been spent within sound of the waters of Largo Bay" and frequent references were made to "the blank that Mr Blyth's removal would cause in the many public bodies with which he had been so long and honourably connected."

Blyth went on to become a representative of Fife Distillery, living in Collessie. Later he moved to Kirkcaldy continuing to work in the grocery and spirits trade.  It was there that he died in 1944 age 79.

Last week I came across a book about the Largo area which I hadn't seen before, while visiting the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) search room in Edinburgh.  D. Hay Fleming writes a wonderful description of the location of the Largo Parish....

"Lying cosily ensconced at the foot, and on the sunny side, of the Law, near the apex of the bonnie bay to which it gives its name, Largo commands a splendid view of the Edinburgh and Lothians side, Berwick Law, the Bass Rock, Inch Keith, and the beautiful scenery that skirts the Firth of Forth."

Published in 1897, his words surely encouraged the growing tourism trade.  Indeed the book also included a Bathers' Tide Table, the Leven and Largo Railway Time Table, Post Office Opening Times and a List of Local Officials, so probably was aimed largely at visitors.  It was also noted in the book that "Mr Welsh at the Post Office during the busy season deals with upwards of 70 telegrams a day!" and that a Post Office had recently been opened in Lundin Links at Miss Bremner's "for the convenience of the visitors and residenters".

A previous post has covered the Lundin Links Pharmacy and noted that Andrew Hogg had been proprietor around the turn of the century.  Since then I have come across another advert for Hogg's Chemist (he had Leven and Lundin Links branches) dating from around 1897.

As well as advertising his supplies for sea-bathing, he is promoting a new perfume branded 'Largo Bay Bouquet'. Cleverly named to apply to a range of coastal resorts in the area, this product no doubt went down well with Victorian summer visitors.

It was quite common in the late Victorian period for pharmacists to make their own perfumes.  I wonder what this one was based upon and whether it would be popular today. It was available in three sizes.  I wonder how ornate the bottles were and if there was any image on the label depicting local scenes.  I wonder how long it was made for and whether any evidence of the product still exists.

If you have ever heard of this fragrance before or know more about it - please do comment.

In October 1947, The Beach Hotel Leven Ltd was granted a certificate for a new hotel in Lundin Links, the Tourist Board having stressed the need for more hotels in the area.  Previously known as Aithernie House (see earlier posts), the Beach Hotel existed until 1980 when it evolved into its present guise as the Old Manor Hotel.  As the newspaper adverts below show, the hotel was open year round - offering both accommodation to summer visitors and social functions for locals.

So, 150 years after it was built as a home for the Misses Rigg, Aithernie House (as it was originally named) continues to be an important building within the village of Lundin Links.  The picture below shows the Old Manor Hotel as it is now. Today, the hotel has 23 bedrooms as well as two function suites (named Largo and Lundie), a private dining room (named Aithernie) and a restaurant (named Seaview).  The magnificent views across the golf course to the Forth and beyond remain as lovely as they were 150 years ago.

Following the deaths of the Misses Rigg and Miss Haymes, ownership of Aithernie House (now the Old Manor Hotel) came to George James Lumsden, a linen manufacturer originally from Falkland.  Like the previous owners of the house, he was actively involved in local life.  For example in August 1913 a garden fete was held in the grounds of Aithernie in aid of local causes.  He was also president of the East of Fife Agricultural Society.  Soon after purchasing the villa, Lumsden had added a substantial extension to Aithernie (to the right hand side of the original house, see image), designed by Sir Robert Lorimer. Original architect's drawings dated 1906 for the work still exist and the scale of the house is demonstrated by the labels attached to the various rooms - including Billiard Room, Butler's Bedroom and Covered Court as well as separate ancillary storage rooms named specifically as 'Coals', 'Lamps', 'Boots / Knives', 'Brushing', 'Milk' and 'Larder'.

In 1920, Aithernie had new residents, when David Russell (third son of the David Russell who ran the Largo Oil and Cake Mill) and his family moved in, initially on a six-month lease.  Early in 1921, the Russell family purchased the seven-bedroom home, with servants' quarters and a tennis lawn, for £7,000. During the 1920s David Russell was the driving force behind the expansion and evolution of the Markinch-based Tullis Russell paper manufacturer (in 1946 he would become Sir David Russell).  However the family left Aithernie in 1927, following the unfortunate suicide of the head gardener there (moving to Silverburn, where David's parents had lived).  Aithernie would be tenant-less for several years.

In 1937, a new chapter opened in the history of the building when Fife Children's Home was set up at Aithernie by Miss Margaret Paxton of Homelands.  The house was rented from David Russell who still owned it. The first of its kind in Scotland, the home provided accommodation for young children whose parents could not look after them.  The children who came to live there spent as much time as possible outdoors in the grounds, even often eating meals outside. Miss Paxton's sister Jessie had by this time been running a nursery in Methil for around eighteen months (still named the Paxton Nursery today). The Courier of 3 September 1937 reported that the sisters had "endeared themselves to many, owing to their untiring energy in the cause of children in distressed and overcrowded areas of Fife."

In the next post - Aithernie undergoes a name change and becomes a hotel.