St Monans to Anstruther and Back Again

We’ve been doing small chunks of the Fife Coastal Path over the last year or so and we like to do shorter stretches but return trips (so we don’t miss anything!).

 

St Monans to Anstruther and Anstruther to St Monans: Distance 7.2 miles, 11.6km. Time taken: 3 hours with lots of stops for photos and a cuppa at Anstruther

 

 

 

We started off with lunch at Craig Millar @ 16 West End. Very delicious it was too. The views from the dining room are superb. the food is exquisite (even for a veggie in a predominantly seafood restaurant). The wine was pretty good too. In fact our Dry January came to a wet end on this day.

 

 

 

Still it seems a shame to have amazing food without amazing wine to accompany it, no? The lunch was a Christmas present to me from my son, Jake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We set off from the restaurant (feeling happy) under a cloudless sky with the sun shining brilliantly, an unexpected pleasure on this January day.

 

 

The wee harbour at St Monans is a riot of colour with the quaint cottages behind providing a stunning backdrop. We lingered here awhile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then passed St Monans Windmill – the only windmill left in Fife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We followed the path along the shore and very shortly came to Pittenweem, another picturesque fishing village in this East Neuk of Fife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we entered Anstruther we were struck by the stunning view from the church graveyard, with the late afternoon sunlight shining on Anstruther. As we gasped in amazement we then noticed a stunning shell-covered wall on the cottage opposite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped for a cuppa and a cake at the Coast Cafe and out of the blue bumped into our friends Chris and Isobel, who moved to this area a few years ago. It was lovely to see them and I wish we’d had more time to tarry awhile but the light was starting to fade and we still had the return journey to St Monans to do (which is a whole different walk with different thing sto look at – another eason why we like to do return journeys as well as round trips)

I loved this stretch of the fife Coastal Path, with it’s fantastic views over to North Berwick Law, Bass Rock and the Isle of May.

We finally made it back to St Monans amidst a final blaze of colour from the sun setting.