Kingsbarns and Cambo, Fife, Eastern Scotland
Summer days
Destination Fife - home of golf!
A picnic and a spell on the beach
The walk to Cambo House
Fife Coastal Path
The alternative route back
Taking the shortest route back to the beach
A handy booklet!
This was a family outing on one of the warm sunny days of the long hot summer of 2006. I'm writing this now towards the end of August, after a few days of cooler wetter weather that seem to have brought the almost-uninterupted couple of months of good weather to an end. No-one I've spoken to can remember anything like it in Scotland.
When we have such weather in Scotland, who needs to go elsewhere for summer holidays? It's just a pity you can't rely on it. Often the temperatures were too high for long hiking trips in the hills, but there are other ways to enjoy the outdoors combining easier walks with visits to beaches and picnics (as on this occasion) or stopping off at historic monuments or picturesque villages.
Towards the end of July we had a return visit from members of the family after we had met up the previous weekend at Crieff (see Crieff and Strathearn walks section). Nick and Kathleen had achieved their ambition of travelling by train up to the north coast, visiting Thurso and Bettyhill. Nick had returned down south, but there were 7 of us looking for somewhere to go for a picnic and a walk on a sunny Sunday, including 2-month-old baby Ailsa.
Destination Fife - home of golf!
Fife lies just across the Tay Estuary from Dundee, and from the shore at Broughty Ferry we can clearly see Tentsmuir Forest and Kinshaldie Beach which we've visited for many walks and picnics over the years. I don't think we have ever ventured in for a swim, on either side of the estuary! We'd been to St Andrews itself quite a few times as well. So we were looking for somewhere different, and when I perused the Ordnance Survey map I noticed what appeard to be a relatively isolated beach further down the coast near Kingsbarns village. Luckily I'd bought a little Fife Walks booklet the previous weekend in Crieff, and No 19 out of the 20 walks turned out to be Kingsbarns and Cambo, starting at the beach. It sounded promising, although I wasn't too sure about the description of the route up the den of the Cambo Burn if we were taking a pram with us.
It was just over a half-hour drive from Dundee across the Tay Bridge and through St Andrews. Immediately after the houses and church in Kingsbarns the beach was signposted down a road to the left. We drove down past houses, with woods on the right, then the road narrowed as it ran down with a golf course stretching on either side.
This stretch of coastline on either side of St Andrews is dominated by golf courses, with more proposed to try to satisfy the insatiable demand to play the game at (or close to) the Home of Golf. Maybe it has the highest concentration of courses in the world - although the coast around Troon, Irvine and Prestwick in Ayrshire would run it close.
A picnic and a spell on the beach
We weren't there for the golf though. We couldn't miss the large car park at the end of the road, although it was busy and when I walked over the grassy mound separating from the beach I could see quite a number of people spread out across the wide beach that extended away in both directions. It was obviously a well-established beach for visitors, although the public toilets away to the left were closed up at the height of the season.
On the other side of the car park a large area of grassland sloped uphill, with a couple of picnic benches on it. There were just a couple of other small groups of picnickers, and a free table for us, so we sat and enjoyed our lunch. Unfortunately the view consists primarily of the car park, but at least it was in the fresh air and sunshine.
Afterwards we spent some time on the beach sunbathing and paddling, on clean sand which shelved gently down into the sea. Unfortunately with all the packing up of picnic stuff and the pram, we'd left the bucket and spade behind, but it was fun nevertheless. And the sun was very strong. The sea looked tempting, and after finding a section without seaweed I finally ventured in. Frances had come in for a paddle but decided it was too cold to go any further, and after only 10 or 15 seconds' swim I agreed! I was also a bit anxious about the occasional red swirling jellyfish that came into view.
If the sea was too cold, the sun was too hot (especially for a young baby) so we decided it was time for the walk. After some indecision we decided to take the pram; the track behind the beach looked wide and solid enough from the end of the car park, cutting through the sand dunes, but there was a lot of lying sand. As a result, Catriona had quite a job at times, but made it successfully along what was probably just over a kilometre, maybe three-quarter of a mile.
This stretch of the walk followed part of the Fife Coastal Path, the long-distance route for walkers and cyclists which runs around the coast from the Forth Road Bridge to the Tay Bridge (although now it seems to continue in the other direction as well - see the Culross story).The views across the bay to the left were very fine, with just a couple of people enjoying the stretch beyond the zone near the car park. The deep blue sea and golden sand conrasted with the bright green of the golf links to the right, stretching up towards the prominent white clubhouse. Ahead of us was a line of trees marking the edge of the golf course. The walks booklet suggested walking along the beach itself, but the track probably provides the better view and easier surface to walk on.
The track turned to the left around the trees, passing a a WC which seemed to be available for walkers as well as golfers. Then we crossed a little bridge, and a path was signposted to the right through a low wooden gate leading into the wooded den of the Cambo Burn. We met a large group of young people walking down towards us and they confirmed that the path would be suitable for a pram.
We enjoyed this stretch passing under the shade of tall trees, taking care to avoid the tall nettles bending over the path in places. At a small footbridge, according to the guidebook, we should have crossed over to continue up the other side of the burn, but it looked as though the path would not be suitable for the pram. We were able to continue ahead on the right bank, and then turn to the right to climb out of the den when we met a sign restricting access to Cambo House which lay ahead.
The path took us near the edge of the golf course, then we could see the upper part of Cambo House through the trees to the left. A little further on there was a T-junction. I checked the route to the right and it was a dead-end. The route to the left passed close to the house, through the grounds and then out again to the right. There was a sign suggesting there was no through route, but we ignored this and a short distance beyond the fence reached another T-junction with a wide vehicle track. There were a couple of people outside the house, and various cars, so it was clearly in use - it later turned out to be available as holiday accommodation.
By my reckoning, using the sketch map in the Fife Walks Booklet, this should lead us straight back alongside the golf course to meet the road from Kingsbarns to the beach. This would save us quite a bit of time compared with the route described in the booklet, which we had already diverted from.
The alternative route in the booklet would have taken us along the other side of the burn, through a dramatic section of the den with overhanging cliffs, and recrossed the burn further up. Then it would continue to the lodge at the gate leading into the estate, and turn right along the shelterbelt of trees to Kingsbarns.
Taking the shortest route back to the beach
However, we were all feeling the heat and had run out of water, so decided on taking the shortest route back (it sounds like an expedition through the desert rather than a short hike in the Scottish countryside!).
Sure enough, the roadway took us straight through for about a kilometre (maybe three quarters of a mile), with a wall then a line of trees on the right, crossing the main drive to the golf clubhouse on the way. Just before we reached the road to the beach, there was a gate into an area of woodland on the right. This would have provided a pleasant short section cutting off the corner and missing out some walking on tarmac, but we kept to the road because of the pram. At the junction with the road we turned right and about 100 metres along it we saw the path coming back out of the trees on the right.
There wasn't much further to go now, about 400m or a quarter of a mile with the golf course on either side, then a viewpoint looking down over the car park towards the sea, and a final walk down over the grass to the car.
We had managed to make the most of the afternoon, and the walk was long enough for us to feel we'd got some exercise without overdoing it in the hot weather.
The Fife Walks booklet which I used is one of a series of pocket guides published by Hallewell. There are 20 walks, graded for difficulty, from short strolls to moderate hikes, and it includes sections of the Coastal Path. It's only a small booklet and some might wonder if it's worth the £2.50, but there's a wealth of information packed into a small space, including helpful maps for each walk. Also, it fits easily into a pocket. For me it was the first time I'd used one of these Hallewell guides, although it recalled a publication I had worked on over 20 years ago with Richard Hallewell, who wrote the descriptions for the "Walk Perthshire" book which was subsequently published by Bartholomews. I was pleased to see that he was still in the business of providing good quality information for walkers in Scotland.
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