Charlestown Limekilns and Harbour

📌 Charlestown, Fife
★★

Limekilns and Charlestown are a pair of attractive, west Fife villages sitting on the north bank of the Firth of Forth a few miles west of the Forth Bridges. Bypassed by the main road between Dunfermline and Kincardine, they’re very much off the tourist trail, but are well worth visiting if you’re in the area. The hillside behind both settlements was once extensively quarried for limestone, originally processed in Limekilns village (no prizes for guessing how the settlement received its name). The local estate owners – the Earls of Elgin – had ambitious expansion plans, however, and built Charlestown from scratch in the 1700s together with a new harbour, railway line and eventually 14 limekilns. Today, it’s the newer neighbour which is the more worthwhile visitor destination. The limekilns have been restored and you can enter some of them – though prepare to be divebombed by pigeons roosting in the depths. Care is also required when exploring the attractive harbour – many of the walls and walkways seem to be crumbling from the inside out.