Home for the Holidays

We are having a 'Staycation' this year. We spent the first week at home getting on with some things around the farm and having some treats, like a facial and massage and a few lunches out.

On Saturday we headed off to the East coast of Scotland to visit my mum.  It was very wet and cold on Saturday, but Sunday turned out to be a lovely sunny day with blue skies, so we decided to go to the villages of the East Neuk of Fife which have pretty harbours and lots of photo opportunities!

We started out at Elie, which is famous for it's golden sands.

Elie Beach

Elie Beach

If you look closely you will see that there are people in swim suits and someone actually swimming!  It really wasn't that warm!  We went for coffee at the Pavillion which belongs to the golf course and sat outside in the shelter of the canopy.


We then moved on to St Monans, which is where my mum was born, although she moved from there as a baby and doesn't remember much about it.

St Monans looking towards the old Kirk

 

St Monans looking towards the windmill

St Monans Harbour

Windmill at St Monans

This recently restored the Windmill was used for pumping the seawater to the saltpans. From this the water was extracted leaving only the salt. It would take approximately 32 tons of sea water to produce 1 ton of salt.  The trade died when laws were changed which allowed cheaper imports to Scotland.

Salt production in the Forth Basin

How the Saltpans worked

You can still see the remains of the salt pans.

Looking back at St Monans from the Windmill

That was the first part of our day,  tomorrow I'll tell you about Pittenween and Anstruther.