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In days gone by Fife was noted not just for its palaces, its churchmen and its scholars. It was equally famed for its rich merchants and its thriving trade with the European Continent. All along the East Neuk coast, crowded hard against each other were the Royal Burghs and the burghs of barony that specialized in this overseas trade. In addition to the merchants and seamen on their peaceful missions, Fife, produced a special breed of sea-dogs whose fought the pirates of England for their Scottish shipmasters.

Those East Neuk ports were prosperous, with sturdy little houses beside the sea-wall or up narrow wynds that led so often from the shore to the High Street far above it. It was the fisherfolk who lived in the wynds. The sea captains and the merchants had more spacious mansions, while the lairds loved the safety of castles. One of the special charms of Fife is the abundance of old houses, small and large, which still look as fresh today as when they were built long centuries ago.

But it was not all work and no play on those far-off days. In Fife is the oldest tennis court in Scotland, a royal one built for James V at Falkland Palace in 1539. There, people still play real-tennis, which is tough and fast and very different from the tennis of today. As for golf, there Fife has no equal in all the world. By 1522 the game had already become an obsession at St. Andrews and it has remained one ever since.

The word " Fife " was originally an old Danish word that meant " Wooded Country." But why Danish ? You only have to look at Fife on the map of Scotland to see why.

And come they did. To Fife Ness, just a few miles NE of Crail, and where the Fifemen waited, and where Dane's Dyke and the Longman's Grave record their incursions; to the May Island, where 600 monks were sadly massacred; and to the Caiplie Coves and all along the East Neuk coast to Earlsferry, where stone coffins were unearthed containing their remains. In fact the Danish Vikings suffered so many defeats in Fife that it became known as their burial ground. The crafty Danes were given something to think about by the even craftier Fifers.

And why the " wooded country ? " Well, a long time ago, when James IV built his huge ship " The Great Michael ", it was said, with typical Fife exaggeration, that he cut down all the wooded areas of Fife just to build her. Certainly it was Fife where his Keel-cutters came from.

It was also in Fife that Alexander III plunged to his death; Macduff fled from Macbeth; Robert the Bruce's parents courted; King Malcolm met his beloved Margaret; Mary of Lorraine landed at Balcomie; Sir Henry Wood trounced Henry VIII's navy between Crail and the May Island; Andrew Selkirk ( alias Robinson Crusoe ) sailed from Largo; the Spanish survivors of the Armada put into Anstruther; Cardinal Beaton was slung into an unknown grave near Kilrenny; and James V crossed the wee Dreel Burn in Anstruther on the back of a Fife girl.

From Pictish relics, to cathedrals and royal palaces, picturesque villages and great castles, history is but a step away in the Kingdom of Fife. Think golf and you, of course, think of St Andrews. But golf fever is not confined to St Andrews alone - there are more than 43 courses in the Kingdom.