Fife Book, The

St Andrews housed the bones of the country's patron saint and it was there that Cardinal Beaton was murdered and John Knox flung into the galleys for France. Dunfermline was the birthplace of Charles I. Falkland Palace still bears the bullet holes of an attempt to kidnap James VI, and it was the woods of the Kingdom that were stripped to build the Great Michael, the largest ship in Europe. The county has a rich agricultural and industrial traditions and its characteristic architecture reflects the importance of trade with the continent, particularly with Holland.

The villages of the East Neuk are justly famous. From earliest times Fife was also famed for its mining, its saltpans and its limekilns. To north and south the peninsula is linked to the mainland by great bridges on the Forth and Tay, monuments to Victorian enterprise and twentieth-century technology. It is a land that even today preserves a vibrant and distinctive heritage and identity.