Exploring: the East Neuk

Yesterday Mr B and I went off to explore the East Neuk of Fife. According to that well trusted source Wikipedia, the East Neuk  “is geographically ill-defined but nonetheless stirs local passions” – Some more research via Google helps me to quickly gather that Fifers in that part of ‘the Kingdom’ as it’s known, basically fight over where the East Neuk starts and begins. The East Neuk is a corner of coastal fife made up of old fishing villages.

We visited Pittenweem, St Monans and Elie. Our first stop was the Cocoa Tree Cafe in Pittenweem which possibly did the best hot chocolate and carrot cake that I have ever had. I opted for a 70% milk chocolate orange flavour – yummy. As well as a cafe there was also an amazing chocolate shop, cute courtyard and funky vintage signs. To say that I liked this place is a massive understatement. Afterwards we also visited The Little Gallery – home to a Swiss lady who has lived in Pittenweem for about 25 years. She lives in the upstairs floor and the Gallery is on the ground floor.  I loved finding this place – there’s no way we would have found it, had it not been for the little hand painted sign directing us from the High Street. I’m obviously in a researching mood tonight as I found this info on a local website:

The Little Gallery in Pittenweem is owned and run by Dr Ursula Ditchburn who hails from Zurich in Switzerland and came to Scotland in the 1950s. She was trained by an uncle who was an antiques dealer in Zurich and today her gallery displays a fascinating collection of antiques, paintings, rustica, small pieces of Edwardian furniture, and china from the 18th to 20th centuries. There’s also lots of Art Deco items. Two to three times a year the Gallery hosts exhibitions of paintings by invited artists. The Gallery is open from 10am to 5pm, Wednesday to Saturday, and from 2pm to 5pm on Sunday.

We then headed out to the Harbour for a wander, then drove onto St Monans and Elie. We didn’t spend too much time in these places but the panoramic photo below shows a Sunday afternoon game of beach cricket going on. I was later told that the pub on the waterfront in Elie serves Pimms on TAP during the summer, I was gutted. Had I known we would have definitely have spent longer there. Oh well, another reason to go once we get that far on the Fife Coastal Path!

The photos below are just a selection I took on my phone – definitely need to remember to keep my SLR charged!

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