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East Neuk of Fife

31/7/2026

As you travel east along the A915, beyond Blacketyside, a large sign welcomes you to the East Neuk of Fife, just before you reach the west edge of Lundin Links. Such signage has been a feature of this stretch of road for decades. The East Neuk refers to the string of ancient fishing villages along the south east corner (or nook or neuk) of Fife - hence the fisher lass image on the signage.

However, over the years some debate has taken place over where the East Neuk's eastern boundary begins. The piece below appeared in the 8 December 1971 East Fife Mail regarding a disagreement over the definition. At the St Andrews Presbytery the previous week Upper Largo Kirk's Reverend Douglas Lister contended that Largo was included, while Mr Hamish McNab of Kilrenny appeared to disagree.

The article ended by asking readers for their thoughts on the matter. In the following week's issue, The Reverend James G.G. Nicholson weighed in on the debate by quoting the lyrics to the song "The East Neuk of Fife" - the chorus of which begins with the line "Frae Fife Ness to Largo Law" (see below). The implication was that the whole of Largo Parish ought to be included.

More than a century earlier, Reverend Walter Wood's "East Neuk of Fife" (1862) discussed the history and antiquities of the area in depth. He included as far west as Leven in the scope of his work, noting that "as the town of Leven lies just on the border of the district in which we are interested, or perhaps beyond it, our relative notice must be comparatively brief". Wood did however cover the lands of Lundin and Largo extensively in his book.

Also around this time, the local press considered Largo to be within the East Neuk - see example above from the 29 January 1870 Fifeshire Advertiser, where Largo boats are noted among the East Neuk O' Fife herring fleet. In 1886, a publication by D. Hay Fleming entitled Guide to the East Neuk of Fife clearly defined the area in its lengthy subtitle of embracing all the towns and villages, antiquities and places of interest between Fifeness and Leven.

Some confusion was often created over the years by regular suggestions that the East Neuk began after Largo - as depicted in the weekly East Neuk News section of the East Fife Mail, which for a time was accompanied by the map graphic above. This was used around the time of Reverend Lister's gentlemanly disagreement on the matter.

Yet the East Neuk of Fife Preservation Society included Largo in their remit and used the map below in their 1968 publication The East Neuk of Fife - Its Burghs and Countryside. These boundaries still apply today - https://eastneukpreservationsociety.co.uk/about-us/our-organisation/enfps-area-boundaries

In 1982, Mary Murray wrote a book In My Ain Words: An East Neuk Vocabulary which opens with the line "There was a time when all the East Neuk villages from Largo to Crail could rightly have been called fishing communities" and goes on to talk the local dialects of the villages, Largo included. Largo's place within the East Neuk was reinforced in the 1980s and 1990s when tourism-related marketing firmly placed Lundin Links, Lower Largo and Upper Largo alongside the more easterly villages. In the mid-1980s the Fife Tourist Route was established with its brown road signs directing visitors to key sites. More specific marketing of the attractions of the East Neuk soon followed with special brochures regularly produced (see 12 May 1989 Fife Herald further below).

The original "Welcome to the East Neuk of Fife" road signs appeared around this time. Placed at major entry points into the coastal region, sign locations along the main tourist routes included:

A915 (West Entry): Located between Leven and Lundin Links, positioned just past Blacketyside.
A917 (South-West Entry): Positioned heading toward Elie, just after the main junction with the B942.
B9131 (North Entry): Located heading south towards Anstruther, positioned just after the Kellie turn-off.
A917 (North-East Entry): Positioned just north of Kingsbarns, welcoming travellers coming down from the St Andrews direction.

Recently upgraded, these signs feature the striking image of a East Fife fisher lass. Updated by Fife Council's graphic design team, the Fisher Lass logo is inspired by the work of artists such as John McGhie (1857-1952), who had a home in Pittenweem. While Largo may be situated on the other side of Kincraig point from its more easterly neighbours, there is much evidence supporting that it is indeed part of the East Neuk. Would you agree?

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Crusoe Statue by Andrew Hogg, Chemist

24/7/2026

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The Robinson Crusoe statue must surely be one of the most popular subjects featured on vintage (and modern) postcards from the Largo area. Nearly all postcard publishers, large and small, included a variation of the above image in their repertoire. This particular version is by Andrew Hogg, the Leven chemist, who set up a branch in Lundin Links in 1903, in the present pharmacy premises.

Hogg was a photography enthusiast, who took photos, stocked photographic supplies and developed film in his own dark room on site. It is therefore not surprising that he wanted to corner part of the local postcard market, using his own photographs. Like many other local shopkeepers - including newsagents, grocers and the local Post Offices - stocking postcards could be a lucrative side-line.

The style of the above postcard differs a little bit from the norm for the time. Its arched cropping and non-standard typeface were probably deliberate choices by Hogg, made to appeal to postcard collectors looking for something a little different. The message on the flipside of the postcard, sent to Devon, reads:

Had a very nice week end near this place. This has been a very nice day here. Love and we trust you are all well.

Andrew Hogg was born in Melrose in 1853 - the son of the local Gas Works manager. He was already described as a 'druggist' by 1871, aged 18. After a period in Lancashire, England, Mr Hogg returned to Scotland, married and started a family. The 1891 census finds the Hogg family in Leven where they had a chemist business on the High Street (where they also lived). Business must have been doing well, as the family had moved to a house they named "The Eildons" on Marine Road (now part of Church Road) in Leven by the 1901 census. The Lundin Links branch of the business opened a couple of years later, in a newly built row of shops at the corner of Emsdorf Street and Links Road, opposite the new Lundin Links Hotel. Hogg was clearly quite innovative in the services and products provided in the shop over the years - even producing a perfume to appeal to visitors to Largo.

Andrew Hogg died in 1937 at the age of 84. He was remembered in his native Melrose when the Southern Reporter reported his passing, stating:

"A Melrose chemist who has spent most of his life in Leven has passed away....Mr Hogg started business in Leven fifty-five years ago....In his younger days he enjoyed fame as a bowler in the Borders. For many years he was chairman of Leven Gas Company until it was taken over by Buckhaven Town Council."

The Lundin Links pharmacy continued to trade under the name of 'A. Hogg' until 1947, while being by Andrew's son Thomas Walter Hogg.

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Alexander Selkirk's Birthplace Visitor Book

17/7/2026

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There have been a few depictions of the original cottage in which Alexander Selkirk (the inspiration behind Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe) was born. The one above is by Largo engraver William Ballingall from his 1872 book Shores of Fife. For decades after the death of Selkirk in 1721, folks would come from far and wide to visit this cottage, meet his relatives and view some of his surviving possessions. For a spell there was even a visitor's book, for those paying a visit to leave their name and details of where they had visited from. This book, which is preserved at the National Library of Scotland, is linked to a well-known Scottish painter.

Like many artists, Kenneth Macleay (1802-1878), pictured above in a calotype by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, visited Largo and the wider Fife coast. When MacLeay and his family visited Selkirk's birthplace in the summer of 1859, his wife Louisa gifted a smartly-bound book to be used to record visitors to the birthplace. At this time, it was 80-year-old Catherine Gillies, the great grand niece of Alexander Selkirk who acted as keeper of his artefacts. John Selkirk (Catherine's father) was the son of Alexander Selkirk, who in turn was the son of David Selkirk (or Selcraig), the eldest brother of the famous Alexander Selkirk.

Kenneth McLeay was born in 1802 in Oban - the son of a doctor. Receiving his early education at Crieff, he came to Edinburgh in 1814 to study at the School of Art at Picardy Place. In 1826 he was one of the artists who founded the Royal Scottish Academy. Securing the patronage of the Queen, he created life miniatures of nearly every member of the Royal family. Chiefly a watercolour portrait painter, he produced both miniature and full size portraits. He later became a professional photographer. The above piece from the 21 December 1863 Daily Review mentions an example of one of MacLeay's Royal commissions.

MacLeay was in his late 50s when the family visited Largo in 1859, just two years after the arrival of railway which made the village more easily accessible. The image above is the first page inside the visitors' book. The inscription reads...

Presented to Mrs Gillies, the great grand niece of Alexander Selkirk - The World famed "Robinson Crusoe" of Defoe, by Louisa MacLeay, wife of Kenneth Macleay R.S.A. 20th July 1859

Louisa MacLeay was the daughter of Sir James Campbell of Ardkinglas and Craigforth. Perhaps a fondness of Defoe's novel motivated her to donate the visitor book. Eight days later on 28th July, Kenneth, Louisa, several of their children and members of their wider family all left their names in the book (see below). This included family members from Louisa's side - the Campbells and Callanders - one of whom, Alexander Callander, served in Her Majesty's Indian Forces.

The visitors' book went on to be signed by a wide range of people between July 1859 and early 1862. Catherine Gillies (nee Selkirk) to whom the book was gifted, died on 1 February 1862 aged 83 years. Within the year the "quaint old house of her fathers, with its moss-covered thatch, its grey walls and small windows" was pulled down and not long after that the artefacts of Selkirk were put up for sale. However, after a hiatus, names continued to be added to the book up until 1868 - although the later visitors would have seen only the new replacement building and none of the major relics.

Local minister Reverend David Malloch, signed the book twice - first in August 1859, the year before he was ordained as minister of Largo United Presbyterian Church (just along the street from the cottage). He signed it again in 1860 after he officially had taken up his post. Other prominent local figures whose names appear in the book include Colin George Macrae of Drum Lodge, George Todd Chiene, the factor at Lundin House, commission agent Benjamin Philp and David Russell of Silverburn.

Other signatories came from other places across Fife (Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, St Andrews, Elie, Leven, Buckhaven and Cupar), elsewhere in Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Falkirk, Alloa, Inverness and John O'Groats), as well as the wider United Kingdom (London, Norwich, Manchester, Newcastle, Belfast, Cheshire, Surrey and Suffolk). A few even came from overseas - with examples including Germany, Hong Kong, Bombay, the USA and Australia. Some visitors had clearly arrived by sea - such as master mariner George Curties from Sunderland.

Louisa MacLeay died on 1 January 1868 aged 50 years and Kenneth died 1878 aged 76. Their visit to Selkirk's cottage and their generous gesture of gifting the book allows us to have this insight into who was visiting Largo and its Selkirk heritage back in the mid-nineteenth century. In terms of who visited the birthplace in the years before 1859, we can only imagine but with prominent figures such as Sir Walter Scott and his Fife-born publisher Archibald Constable paying a visit, there were no doubt many interesting characters among the earlier visitors.

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Eastward Extension of the Telephone

10/7/2026

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The 14 April 1904 Leven Advertiser included a brief notice that the Post Office was soon to establish a telephone service beyond Leven, through Lundin Links. The exchange was to be at Lundin Links Post Office, which had opened eight years earlier. The system was to continue from there on to Elie, via Upper Largo, and eventually to Anstruther. On 1 June 1904, the Largo Parish Council granted permission to the Postmaster-General to erect telephone poles in the villages.

The previous year, the 26 June 1903 East of Fife Record has noted that Dr Stuart Palm had been a driving force behind the creation of telephone facilities in the Largo villages. As the local doctor, he must have envisaged great benefit from the service. By September of 1904, "very slow progress" was being made, according to the 1 September 1904 Leven Advertiser. The pair of images below were taken around the same time but the upper image has no poles, while the lower one does.

The erection of the many tall telegraph poles was no simple task. The poles were prepared at Leven, before being brought eastwards by traction engine and dropped off at regular intervals. As well as putting the poles themselves carefully into position, some clearing of branches was required to make way for the wires. Ultimately, the wires were linked up to the Post Office facility. Then subscribers were provided with telehone equipment and in turn were connected to the network. By the start of September, the poles had been placed as far as Lundin Links - with the village's connection to the network imminent.

Elie came into operation around November and Anstruther around December. The 4 December 1904 St Andrews Citizen piece below tells of the hazards faced by the men putting up the poles. In frosty conditions, Robert Peebles of Largo was up one of the poles when his ladder slipped and he fell 20 feet. Fortunately, his injuries were not serious.

The telephone must have been a boon for many and a novelty as well. The article below from 19 January 1905 Leven Advertiser provides an insight into an example of an early phone call made by a local family.

Early subscribers to the telephone service was allocated a simple number - a single digit in some cases. The first few Lundin Links numbers are shown below. When a subscriber picked up their receiver, it would alert an operator at the local switchboard. The operator would then verbally ask for the desired connection and would physically connect the two lines using a jack plug. Over the decades the numbers evolved and lengthened. For example, the Lundin Links Hotel began as 7 (into the 1930s), then became 207, then 320207. Over the years the number of points on the telegraph poles multiplied, as can be seen in the images at the foot of this post.

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The Postcard Craze

3/7/2026

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The postcard above, posted on 21 August 1903 in Lower Largo, is one local example of the phenomenon known as the picture postcard craze. From soon after the introduction of the picture postcard in 1894, until the beginning the of First World War, postcard collecting enjoyed its heyday. In the time before telephones, supported by inexpensive postage and frequent mail deliveries, people of all classes mailed huge quantities of cards daily. Not only were postcards a speedy means of sharing news and making personal arrangements but the images on the cards were engaging and collectible.

The postcard above features a view of part of Lundin Links, which included several recently completed buildings (as well as some very old cottages to the immediate left of the Lundin Links Hotel). The message written reads:

Goodsir House, Largo

I hear you are on collecting cards now too. It's an awful craze just now. Maggie is on now too. This has been a better week but very cold. How are you all keeping. Margot is much better she was out a good walk today.

So the recipient of this postcard, Miss M Gray of Innerleithen, and her friend Maggie, were both involved in the postcard craze, which had surged around this time in 1903. Teenage girls were one of the key groups involved in postcard collecting - often filling large albums full of the views they had amassed. The journal Girls Realm even encouraged girls to swap postcards across different parts of the country through their exchange column. The piece below from 27 July 1906 Dundee Evening Telegraph provides comment on the phenomenon.

However, it would seem that the craze was not universally popular. One grumpy letter writer to the Dundee Courier of 24 March 1903, complained below about not being able to travel anywhere without friends requesting that he drop them a postcard while there.

Postcard publishers met the demand by printing cards on every conceivable subject, including topographical scenes, humorous cartoons, sentimental art, film stars and royalty. In Great Britain alone, more than 900 million postcards were posted in 1913, averaging about 20 per person. Postcards could be purchased from all sorts of places - from railway stations to hotel lobbies and all manner of shops (see below from 6 June 1914 People's Friend). The wealth of picture postcards views of Largo and Lundin Links can be attributed to the many local shops that took the opportunity to publish local scenes, including many local newsagents, grocers and chemists.

The craze came to an abrupt halt with the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, which of course changed everyone's priorities and altered the way mail was handled. Today, antique postcards from the heyday of collecting remain highly sought as they provide a visual record of daily life, architecture, and social history prior to the First World War - not to mention intriguing short personal messages from voices from the past.

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East Neuk of Fife

Crusoe Statue by Andrew Hogg, Chemist

Alexander Selkirk's Birthplace Visitor Book

Eastward Extension of the Telephone

The Postcard Craze

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