Fife

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Fife Council
Fìobh
Location
Geography
Area Ranked 13th
 - Total 1,325 km²
 - % Water 1%
Admin HQ Glenrothes
ISO 3166-2 GB-FIF
ONS code 00QR
Demographics
Population Ranked 3rd
 - Total (2006) 358,900
 - Density 271 / km²
Scottish Gaelic
 - Total () N/A
Politics
Fife Council

http://www.fife.gov.uk/
Control Scottish National Party/Liberal Democrat
MPs Gordon Brown
Sir Menzies Campbell QC
John William MacDougall
Willie Rennie
MSPs Scott Barrie
Helen Eadie
Marilyn Livingstone
Tricia Marwick
Iain Smith
Jim Tolson
Scotland

Fife (Gaelic: Fìobh) is a council area of Scotland, situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with landward boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire. It was originally one of the Pictish kingdoms, known as Fib, and is still commonly known as the Kingdom of Fife within Scotland.

It is a lieutenancy area, and was a county of Scotland until 1975. It was very occasionally known by the anglification Fifeshire in old documents and maps compiled by English cartographers and authors. A person from Fife is known as a Fifer.

From 1975 to 1996 Fife was a local government region divided into three districts — Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and North-East Fife. Since 1996 the functions of the district councils have been exercised by the unitary Fife Council.

Fife is Scotland's 3rd largest local authority area with a resident population of just over 350,000. Almost a third of the population live in the three principal towns of Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes.

The historical town of St Andrews is located on the east coast of Fife. It is well known for one of the most ancient universities in Europe, and as the home of golf.

Contents

Popularly known as 'The Kingdom of Fife', Fife probably takes its name from Fibh, a 7th century Pictish king. Fibh was one of the seven sons of Cruithne, a warrior king who ruled over a wide area of ancient Scotland.

Legend has it that upon the death of Cruithne, the Pictish realm - known collectively as 'Pictavia' - was divided into seven sub-kingdoms or provinces, one of which became Fife. The name is recorded as Fib in 1150 and Fif in 1165. It was often associated with Fothriff.

Fife, bounded to the north by the Firth of Tay and to the south by the Firth of Forth, is a natural peninsula whose political boundaries have changed little over the ages.

King James VI of Scotland described Fife as a 'beggar's mantle fringed with gold' - the golden fringe being the coast and its chain of little ports with their thriving fishing fleets and rich trading links with the Low Countries, ironic given the much later development of farming on some of Scotland's richest soil and the minerals, notably coal underneath. Wool,linen, coal and salt were all traded. Salt pans heated by local coal were a feature of the Fife coast in the past.The distinctive red clay "pan tiles" seen on many old buildings in Fife arrived as ballast on trading boats and replaced the previously thatched roofs.

Historically, there was much heavy industry in the century or so following the Victorian engineering triumphs of the Forth and Tay rail bridges, The Fife coalfields were developed around Kirkcaldy and the west of Fife reaching far out under the Firth of Forth. Shipbuilding was famous at Methil and Rosyth. The world centre for linoleum production was in Kirkcaldy (where it is still produced), and flax grown in Fife was transformed into linen locally too. Post-war Fife saw the development of Scotlands second new town, Glenrothes. Originally to be based around a coal mine the town eventually attracted a high number of modern Silicon Glen companies to the region. Fife Council also centered their operations in Glenrothes.

There are many notable historical buildings to be seen in Fife, some of which are managed by the National Trust for Scotland or Heritage Scotland. They include Dunfermline abbey (last resting place of Scottish Royalty), the Palace in Culross, Ravenscraig Castle in Kirkcaldy, Dysart Harbour area, Balgonie Castle near Coaltown of Balgonie, Falkland Palace (hunting palace of the Scottish Kings), Kellie Castle near Pittenweem, Hill of Tarvit (a historical house), St Andrews Castle (with a gruesome bottle dungeon), St Andrews Cathedral and St Rules' Tower.

Fife is a peninsula in eastern Scotland bordered on the north by the Firth of Tay, on the east by the North Sea and the Firth of Forth to the south. The route to the west is partially blocked by the mass of the Ochil Hills. Almost all traffic into and out of Fife has to pass over one of three bridges, south on The Forth Road Bridge, west on the Kincardine Bridge or north east via The Tay Road Bridge, the exception being traffic headed north on the M90. It is a sore point among local residents that the only two bridges in Scotland (Tay and Forth) on which a toll has to be paid are those leading into Fife, with the tolls retained by the Scottish Executive for national use. The Erskine and Skye bridges did have tolls, but these were abolished recently (as of 2006).

There are a number of extinct volcanic features, such as the Lomond Hills which rise above rolling farmland, and Largo Law, a volcanic plug in the east. At 522m (or 1713 feet), the West Lomond is the highest point in Fife. The coast has many fine but small harbours, from the industrial docks in Burntisland and Rosyth to the fishing villages of the East Neuk such as Anstruther and Pittenweem. The large area of flat land to the north of the Lomond Hills, through which the River Eden flows, is known as the Howe of Fife.

Looking across the farmland of North East Fife to the distant Lomond Hills
Looking across the farmland of North East Fife to the distant Lomond Hills

North of the Lomond Hills can be found many villages and small towns in a primarily agricultural landscape. The areas in the south and west of Fife, including the towns of Dunfermline, Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy and the Levenmouth region are much more lightly industrial and densely populated. The only area which could claim to be heavy industry is that of Rosyth, around the naval dockyard.

The east corner of Fife, generally that east of a line between Leven and St Andrews is recognised throughout Scotland as the "East Neuk" (or corner) of Fife, small settlements around sheltered harbours, with distinctive vernacular "Dutch" or craw(crow)stepped gabled and stone-built architecture - an area much sought after as second homes of the Edinburgh professional classes in the 30 years since the Forth Road Bridge was built. The fishing industry on which the East Neuk settlements were built has declined in recent years with the main fishing fleet now operating from Pittenweem and the harbour in Anstruther being used as a marina for pleasure craft.

  • MV, musician, founding eagle, wind beneath my wings.

Fife Council has a joint SNP/Liberal Democrat local government administration following the recent elections. Labour and the other parties form the opposition. [1]

In William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, the Thane of Fife is Macduff.

v • d • e
Council areas of Scotland
Aberdeen · Aberdeenshire · Angus · Argyll and Bute · Clackmannanshire · Dumfries and Galloway · Dundee · East Ayrshire · East Dunbartonshire · East Lothian · East Renfrewshire · Edinburgh · Falkirk · Fife · Glasgow · Highland · Inverclyde · Midlothian · Moray · Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles) · North Ayrshire · North Lanarkshire · Orkney · Perth and Kinross · Renfrewshire · Scottish Borders · Shetland · South Ayrshire · South Lanarkshire · Stirling · West Dunbartonshire · West Lothian
v • d • e
Former counties of Scotland
Subdivisions created by the
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889
and abolished by the
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fife"
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