An Armchair Visit to Fife on Social Media

Podcasts and Website

Here are two website which are packed with information and photos:

https://fifecoastandcountrysidetrust.co.uk/walks/fife-pilgrim-way/ has much about the newly opened Fife Pilgrim Way from Cuross to St Andrews. There are helpful maps, hints and guides. It is a path I have yet to enjoy.

http://www.walkfife.com/walk-fife-podcast/ This is the most exciting site I’ve found of late. Podcasts brimming with suggestions, guides and advice to enjoy The Kingdom of Fife. Brilliant!

Love Fife on Twitter

I love searching for places I know on the internet. If you are visiting Fife there’s no better way (apart from reading the books on my last post ‘Excellent Books about The Fife Coastal Path’) to get to know a place from the comfort of your own armchair than connecting with bite sized posts on Twitter.

Here’s a flavour of tweeters I’m following. I’m sure there are many more. Please let me know if I’ve missed you.

A must to follow!

@welcometofife ~ Promoting everything there is to love about the Kingdom of Fife (some wonderful photos and ideas for places to visit)

@FFP The Fife Free Press Scottish Weekly Newspaper of the Year 2015 & 2016. Newsdesk :01592 645700 email ffpnews@fifetoday.co.uk or tweet us! (there’s lots on football if that’s your thing)

More news from a different perspective

@FifeFreePressEd Allan Crow, editor Fife Free Press, Scottish Weekly Newspaper of Year 2019/16/15. Web: http://fifetoday.co.uk

@ONFifePress News from Fife Cultural Trust

For enthusiastic walkers

@Walk_Fife Walk  Fife explores the Kingdom on foot. Sharing free walking routes from around Fife. We have a #podcast as well! Supporting the outdoors community in #Fife

@Hotpotwynd (The Fife Coastal Path official twitter site ~ the name Hot Pot Wynd is a road leading down to Dysart Harbour. Great isn’t it!)

@FifeWalking (explores many of the less known beautiful spots in Fife)

For Writers

@WritesFife Fife Writes is a group of writers set up to be a peer support group for writers of all genres.

@WritersInkFife Writers Ink Fife is a teenage lead writing group in Glenrothes, that focuses on creativity through literacy

Not to Miss Photos!

@SteelySeabirder SNH David Steel is the Nature Reserve Manager for the Isle of May home to 46,200 pairs of Puffins and 200,000 seabirds! (wonderful photos ~ Painted Ladies too!)

@CountrysideBen Ben Dolphin Ranger, blogger, nature nut, general evangelist for the great outdoors. President of @ramblersscot . Prone to blethering. (Wonderful photos too, although he is often in the Cairngorms in the summer months.)

@Johnpow1 also posts some fantastic photos and videos of Fife and other parts of Scotland.

For the record I’m @Riduna on Twitter. The name’s nothing to do with Fife by the way, but my fantasy/ memoir The Healing Paths of Fife is still for sale in aid of Kirkcaldy Foodbank until the end of February 2020.

If you love Fife and are not on my radar as yet and think you ought to be, it would be lovely to hear from you. Do get in touch on twitter @Riduna or email diana@dianamaryjackson.co.uk

Excellent Books about The Fife Coastal Path

 

 

If you are about to walk The Fife Coastal Path there are some excellent resources.

For extensive background information I don’t think you can better

Hamish Brown’s Along The Fife Coastal Path.

I actually have an older version The Fife Coast by Hamish Brown, bought in a wonderful back street secondhand bookshop in Burntisland, long before I met Hamish.

 

 

Certainly, the next essential purchase is a good map. You could buy an OS map, but you would probably need two or three to cover the route.

 

We found The Fife Coastal Path Footprint by Harry Styles brilliant ~ a complete map/ guide with comfort stops and cafes along the way, as well as tide information and alternative routes. It is split in manageable day chunks and comes complete with a plastic see through cover. We bought ours at The Harbourmaster’s House at Dysart, a cafe and information centre by the harbour, but you can also purchase it in Waterstones, Smiths or on Amazon. I believe there maybe a newer version of this trusty map now available.

 

 

 

 

Finally there’s a combined guide and map if you don’t want quite as much detail as Hamish Brown’s book, although equally interesting. Fife Coastal Path, a Rucksack Reader by Sandra Bardwell and Jacqetta Meggary, is a great size to take with you and read snippets sitting on a rock beside the sea, pausing a wee while on a convenient bench or even while you enjoy a pit stop lunch in one of the numerous cafes. We bought ours in Waterstones, Kirkcaldy but there are numerous places you can buy it along the way.

 

 

 

The Healing Paths of Fife by Diana Jackson is also for sale in aid of Kirkcaldy Foodbank until the end of February 2020, both paperback and on Kindle. It is also for sale in Baker’s Field cafe, Kirkcaldy, and at the In Design shop in the Olympia Arcade, Kirkcaldy. All profits go to the foodbank ~a worthy cause. Over £500 has now been raised for local charities so far through the sale of The Healing Paths of Fife.

Diana’s Virtual Tour of Fife ~ The Coastal Path to St Andrews

Ode to St Andrews

On the cliff top

majestic ruins enhance the blue skyline,

a backdrop of the restless ocean

and endless white sands.

The cathedral’s greatness

living on in the lives of countless pilgrims,

a memory of centuries of worship

and a legacy of spirituality.

A tribute to God.

And yet pilgrims also flock to the greens below,

the hallowed centre of golf.

Revered members

with their grand clubhouse

and fairways stretching

above the ocean and the miles of sand.

A fitting tribute to the skills of man.

(Author Diana Jackson walked The Fife Coastal Path from Queensferry to St Andrews and in her fantasy world she met many famous people along the way.

‘The Healing Paths of Fife’ ‘is her story.)