Striding out

[shewhomust]

Yesterday was a longer day's walking than our first day, and involved more road work too - including a longish stretch by the main road between Burntisland and Kinghorn. The one point of interest here was the monument to Alexander III, the last Celtic king of Scotland (close to the point where he rode over the cliffs one stormy night, according to our guide book, which is full of delightful information): I would never even have guessed that a king called Alexander was Celtic. In general, there were fewer things to see all along the route, which was just as well - if we'd covered the ground as slowly as on our first day, we'd have been lucky to reach our destination by nightfall.

The day started - well, no, the day started with a visit to the Post Office and second-hand bookshop. But after that there was a steep climb up to the headland at Hawkcraig Point, with one last view back to the Forth Bridge and plenty of blackberries to quench the thirst of the climb - and then a scramble down past a couple of whate and red markers, round the sandy bay and into the woods to the loud clattering of a woodpecker. There's a petrifying spring, known as Fossil Falls, but the path is soon pinched beside the railway, with nothing to see until you emerge into the housing estate on the edge of Burntisland (which is neither burnt nor an island. The actual derivation is probably something like Burnty's Land, but they pronounce it Burnt Island to confuse the visitor).

We bought a picnic lunch mostly from Stuart's, the bakers of the best Scotch pies in the world, according to their paper bags - but by the time we read this on the wrapping of our corned beef pasty and sausage rolls, it was too late to put it to the test. Then came the long haul on the road to Kinghorn, where there is a charming little harbour and excellent public conveniences, embellished by a magnificent display of wild flowers (in October!) provided by Kinghorn in Bloom (one of whose volunteers saw me photographing them).

From here we had sea views - and the ruined Seafield Tower, until we came through another housing estate into Kircaldy. Past Raith Rovers football ground (loud chanting from within) and along the High Street to our B & B (which doesn't sound much untl you discover that the High Street is a mile long).

Today, more briefly: a bit of a struggle out of Kirkaldy on the main road, then some really fun walking thrugh the park, with views of Ravenscraig Castle. On to Dysart, which we approached via a tunnel through the shoulder of rock which shelters the harbour, so that the town with its pretty white houses comes as a complete surprise (and the café at the Harbourmaster's house serves coffee with coffee in it). Another woodland walk gives a view of West Wemyss gleaming on its headland, and a walk round the bay took us into the town.

After those highlights, it was rather a slog into Leven. And since we lunched late, at the Railway Tavern in Buckhaven, on (in my case) cheese salad and chips, we dined this evening on the homemade shortbread provided with the tea and cffee suplies at our B & B - it was delicious.

Comments

[sovay]

on the edge of Burntisland (which is neither burnt nor an island. The actual derivation is probably something like Burnty's Land, but they pronounce it Burnt Island to confuse the visitor).

I like that.

And a beautiful picture of flowers and the sea. Thank you.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Thank *you*.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Oh, those beautiful shades of blue!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

And the even bluer sky! We have been very lucky with the weather.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous.

How I'd love to be walking with you!

Nine

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Not sure that'd be a good idea: you'd find out how pathetic and bad-tempered I can be!

But I'd have enjoyed your company today, my lazy day in Crail, while himself has been walking to St Andrews.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

He was a descendant of Malcolm III Canmore (of MacBeth fame). The name was adopted into the line in during the 12th century, as a result of increased and sometimes friendly contact with Anglo-Norman England -- Malcolm's son David (who later became David I of Scotland) was fostered by Henry I and tghe latter's wife who was Malcolm's daughter. When he became king of Scotland, he took a number of his Norman friends with him, including the ancestors of the Stuarts, and introduced a more European style of kingship and court culture.
However, the name was first used (that we know of) in that royal line by Malcolm III himself, for one of David's brothers (Alexander I, d. 1124). Malcolm as a young man had spent time in the Anglo-Saxon earldom of Northumbria, as a guest of its earl, the rather educated Siward, who was one of Edward the Confessor's leading advisers and possibly the source of such names.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I knew you'd know all about it!

And it's good to be reminded that these people lived in the culture of their time, not in some sort of monocultural Celtic twilight.

Now you've set me wondering how David escaped from being seen as a purely Old Testament (i.e, Jewish) name. Was it particularly popular among the Celts? How solid is the Dewi / David equivalence? Life is full of mysteries...

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

David I of Scotland is the first one I know about. His mother was Margaret, the great-niece of Edward the Confessor. She had been raised mainly in Hungary, for various complicated reasons to do with Cnut's conquest of England and was very pious -- the names of her children with Malcolm III reflect her religious and European background as well as her Anglo-Saxon roots (Edward, Edmund, AEthelred, Edgar [these 3 all names used by her royal line, the house of Wessex], Alexander, David, Edith [another A/S name), Mary) and not her husband's Gaelic ones. SO my guess is the name here was down to her piety. As to Dewi/David, I'm not sure how that connection formed, but I would guess it was down to attempts to Latinise his name by monks writing in Latin -- the A-text of the Annales Cambriae, which is our oldest extant Welsh annal text, and was probably compiled at St Davids, calls him both 'Dewi' and 'David', which suggests that the assimilation had occurred by c.950, when the text was first compiled.