分类: Tourism - VINTAGE LUNDIN LINKS AND LARGO

VINTAGE LUNDIN LINKS AND LARGO

Marketing the East Neuk

7/8/2026

The previous post looked at Largo's place within the East Neuk and how this was reinforced in the 1980s and 1990s when tourism-related marketing of the East Neuk embraced Lundin Links, Lower Largo and Upper Largo. The front and back pamphlet covers shown above date from 1988. This was was one in a series of leaflets promoting each of the main destinations along the coast. Each had specific local scenes and attractions depicted on the front cover but the same East Neuk advert on the back cover - offering an invitation to "discover the unique living history of this lovely part of the ancient Kingdom of Fife". Largo's front cover included the Robinson Crusoe statue, Largo Law, a golfer and the Crusoe Hotel.

Behind the marketing push sat a training initiative aimed at tourism related businesses. Under this East Neuk Maritime Project Training Initiative there was assistance at hand to develop skills around customer care, marketing, book-keeping and more.

The content of the leaflets above included a bit of local history, suggested walking routes, photographs of the area, a list of facilities, street maps and notably many advertisements for local businesses. Many of the businesses across the Largo villages advertised in the area's 1988 local guide. Most are now gone. A selection are shown below, which I hope will bring back some memories.

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?

Crusoe Statue by Andrew Hogg, Chemist

24/7/2026

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.

Alexander Selkirk's Birthplace Visitor Book

17/7/2026

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.

The Postcard Craze

3/7/2026

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.

Alexander Selkirk's Gun - Part 3

16/6/2026

On 11 December 1985, precisely a century to the minute after the unveiling of the Robinson Crusoe statue, the Alexander Selkirk Museum was opened in Lower Largo. The image above from the 12 December Scotsman shows TV personality Tom Weir next to a plaque which we had unveiled. The accompanying article noted that a couple of key artefacts were absent from the museum's collection. One was the sea-chest which was (and still is) held at the Scottish Museum of Antiquities (now the National Museum of Scotland). The other was the flintlock gun, which was of unknown whereabouts.

It was this article and the specifically the words "it is the gun which the family would most dearly like to get hold of" that prompted journalist Rick Wilson to set off on a mission to track Selkirk's gun down. In fact, his subsequent investigations identified three different guns with supposed links to 'Crusoe'. One was the gun known to have been in Lower Largo until around 1800 when it was sold to John Lumsdaine of Lathallan (read about that here). Another was a gun with a carved butt that emerged in the 1880s when a gentlemen contacted the Largo Field Naturalists' Society about it (read about that here). Then a third gun emerged from Rick Wilson's efforts.

While following the trail of guns one and two, Rick Wilson received a tip-off about an article in Sporting Gun magazine about a gun with a possible link to Robinson Crusoe. He contacted the magazine editor, who put him in touch with the author of the piece. Eventually the weapon in question was traced a Mrs Florence Osbourn of East Dereham, Norfolk. Her late husband had purchased the gun around 1953 from an antique shop in Newmarket, paying only a couple of pounds for it. After some negotiation, this gun was purchased for the Lower Largo Museum. The photograph below shows Ivy Jardine, the driving force behind the museum, holding the gun. The detail further below shows the name roughly carved in capital letters: ALEXR SELKIRK. Apparently on the reverse it read 1705.

From the start, there was some doubt over the authenticity of this gun. Experts from both the National Museum of Scotland and the Scottish United Services Museum at Edinburgh Castle had reservations about its age. When the small museum at Largo closed, the gun was offered to both the National Museum of Scotland and Christie's saleroom. Both declined to take the gun, as it was concluded that it could not be genuine. In Rick Wilson's 2009 book The Man Who Was Robinson Crusoe, it states that "there is some talk that it now resides in Germany". Indeed the gun was placed in Hamburg, Germany, where it was photographed in 2018 by travel blogger Eugene Kaspersky - see image below from his blog at https://eugene.kaspersky.com/

The third gun - probably still in Germany - is quite clearly different in design to the first gun, pictured below from its time at Lathallan House in the mid-1800s. Described as "a very long-barrelled brute with a wedge chopped off its butt", this musket could well be the one that accompanied Alexander Selkirk the island of Más a Tierra (Robinson Crusoe Island) between 1704 and 1709. Sadly, decades have passed since its whereabouts were known.

So, today, the situation remains much the same as the time when the article below appeared in the 6 January 1983 Hull Daily News. The Hull Docks Museum was searching for gun number one (the one pictured above), while the Clapham Antiquarists' Society were looking to track down gun two. Neither had success and it's ironic that today the only gun with known whereabouts is gun number three - the one with the least credibility. Perhaps revisiting the story of the three Selkirk guns in these days of the internet may yield some new leads. If you know something - please get in touch!

Victoria House

29/5/2026

The picture postcard shown above was published by Young, Stationer & Newsagent, Lundin Links. It features Victoria House, which was built by local contractor Walter Horne around 1907 as a boarding establishment. This photograph likely dates to the late 1920s (when the business was known as Swan's Victoria) or the early 1930s when Agnes Peebles Watters (nee Greig) ran the 'private hotel'. By the time that this image was captured, the open verandas originally at ground and first floor level on the right hand side had been closed in to form bay windows.

During Mrs Watters time, the advert further below for the hotel appeared in the tourist guide for Largo area. Within the grounds of the hotel itself, visitors had access to a 9-hole putting course, clock golf and a quoit tennis court. Notice that in the photograph detail below, there is a well-dressed chap with a golf club. He is either having a go at the putting course or a game of clock golf. A tall flag pole can also been seen behind the man, by the fence.

Clock golf or clock putting, was a Victorian garden game that involved a circular arrangement of twelve cast iron numbered markers, resembling the numbers on a clock face. The game was set up with the numbers (often Roman numerals) placed in a circle, to represent each hour of the clock. A hole (target) is placed a few feet off centre, in order to vary the distance from each figure to the hole.

Players take turns putting from each of the twelve positions, starting at 1 o’clock and moving sequentially around the circle (which would ideally measure around 40 feet in diameter). The objective was to get the ball into the hole with the fewest strokes possible from each position. After completing a full round, the player with the fewest total strokes wins. Clock golf was popular as it required minimal space and could be enjoyed by people of all ages.

Quoit tennis was another garden game for 2 or 4 players (singles or doubles) where a court is marked out on the grass and a net put up in the centre. The rules of the game were similar to those of tennis but a rope quoit replaced the tennis ball and hands were used rather than racquets. Quoits were served and returned across the net and points lost for quoits hitting the net or going out of the court.

When guests at the Victoria were not enjoying such garden-based games, they were only a stone's throw away from the beach (with access to the boarding house's private bathing boxes) and from Lundin golf course. In the evening there might be a dance, a whist drive or indoor sports. Entertainment for all the family - happy days!

Busy 1960s Pier

10/4/2026

This view featured on a postcard that was posted on 8 July 1963. The view is familiar and much-photographed but the addition of several cars and a few people in the foreground adds to the interest. There's a man pushing a young child in a pushchair, with grandparents following behind, plus an eclectic mix of vehicles, including a motorbike and sidecar. A bus is passing behind the Fish Restaurant that was run by the Forte family.

Known locally as Granny Forte's chip shop or Granny Greasers, this food outlet was a fixture of the village for several decades from the 1920s. Constructed on the site of old outbuildings, the fish shop first appeared on the valuation roll in the mid 1920s, when the building was owned by Rachel Williamson of Coventry Cottage (daughter of Alexander Williamson the plasterer) and the tenant was Daniel Forte. By 1930, the Fortes had bought the fish restaurant premises which was demolished in the 1970s.

A second postcard view below was likely photographed on the same day and is part of the same Millar & Lang M&L National Series. This one was posted on 11 July 1963, just three days after the postcard above. Both of the senders of these postcards talk of having a good time in Largo in spite of changeable weather.

Gone Away to Glasgow

3/4/2026

The photograph above shows an empty niche at the Crusoe Buildings on Lower Largo's Main Street. Its usual occupant - the iconic statue of Robinson Crusoe - had been lifted off its plinth in October 1987 and taken for some restoration work prior to featuring in the 'Water and Maritime' themed section of Glasgow Garden Festival. Officially approved late in 1984, work to create the 120-acre exhibition site took a few years to plan and create before its run from 28 April to 26 September 1988.

It was the third of five garden festivals to take place in the UK as part of the regeneration of several derelict sites. The other garden festivals were held at Liverpool (1984), Stoke-on-Trent (1986), Gateshead (1990) and Ebbw Vale (1992). Glasgow's festival saw the derelict Princes Dock on the Clyde transformed. The Water and Maritime sector of the exhibition aimed to showcase "Scotland's rich history of maritime trade and exploration" and the Alexander Selkirk story took its place within that,

Crusoe was sited by the Canting Basin - a historic, large square water basin originally built between 1893 and 1896 as part of the Prince's Dock. It was designed for large ships to turn or "cant" before accessing industrial berths. Today, it serves as a scenic, revitalised area behind the Glasgow Science Centre and features floating wetlands. The annotated images below show the area within the garden festival site where the Crusoe statue was positioned, close to a white cottage known as Para Handy's Cottage. At the foot of this post is an aerial image of the site as it is today.

Edwardian Ladies on the Serpentine

9/1/2026

The postcard above was posted in August 1909 and features three ladies at the Serpentine. Despite being posted in Upper Largo, the postcard was sold by John Welsh at the Post Office in Lower Largo, suggesting that the sender himself walked this path between the upper and lower villages. The message on the reverse reads:

Dear Jim,

We are staying at Viewforth this month. I had a fine catch of partans this morning. Would you like one? Pa and George were golfing. This is Ma's birthday. Love to all.

Arthur

Partans are crabs and the question of 'would you like one?' is of course a joke - particularly as the recipient was Mr James Clark of Nelson, British Colombia. The postcard was sent to him care of the Post Office there, shown below when it was newly opened just a few years before. Perhaps Jim had recently emigrated there from Scotland.

Arthur's family were staying just a short stroll from the Serpentine path at Viewforth (both of which feature on the map above). The Serpentine Walk is a historic tree-lined path linking Lower Largo to Upper Largo, now managed by the Woodland Trust. The name 'Serpentine' is a commonly-used one for paths, rivers, lakes and the like which curve and twist like a snake. Viewforth (at the right on the map) was originally the site of a salt work and was once also referred to as 'Largo Pans' or simply 'the Pans'. Later the location became popular for summer visitors - being well placed for seabathing and getting away from it all.

The three ladies in the Serpentine postcard image are shown very clearly. I wonder whether they were visitors or locals. The woman above is looking directly into the camera lens and is clearly carrying something in each hand. The two older women below looked as if posed to be in conversation, with the houses of South Feus in the background. I wonder whether the three just happened to be around when the photographer was on location and were asked to be in shot. It would be fascinating to know more about the scene and who these individuals were. The photographer would have been one hired by James Valentine and Sons to capture local views. Valentines hired a team of photographers to document villages, towns and cities and places of interest across the country to use on their postcards and souvenir booklets.

Many old postcards views of the Serpentine Walk featured people - to provide scale and interest, such as the example above. The Serpie is still a handy and enjoyable walk today with a great view of Largo Law as you approach Upper Largo.