A handful of new towns were constructed in central Scotland within two decades of WW2 ending. The aim of the project was to ease overcrowding in older urban areas. Glenrothes in Fife is now home to 40,000 residents. The town was planned in the late 1940s and was the second such settlement to be built, after East Kilbride in Lanarkshire.
A new "super pit" named Rothes Colliery was sunk in the surrounding area and was intended to provide employment for over a thousand men. After being opened in 1958 by the Queen in a blaze of publicity, the colliery experienced geological problems and only delivered a tiny fraction of its anticipated output, closing a few years later. Glenrothes became instead a centre for the manufacture of electronic components and was chosen as the administrative centre for Fife Regional Council in 1975 - a function carried out at Fife House to this day, although the local government has been rejigged as the single-tier Fife Council. In terms of walking opportunities, it's easy to dismiss the new towns as featureless identikit affairs with no traditional High Street and and endless succession of roundabouts. This attitude however does them a great disservice. Myriad footpaths were baked into the development plans and historical detail certainly exists as the new towns were built over a patchwork of farms and hamlets that already had a long-standing presence. Yes, there are modern art installations everywhere you look in Glenrothes but there are also hidden gems from days gone by. I decided to explore some of this heritage and arrived by bus on a sunny evening after work. I have of course visited the centre of Glenrothes countless times since childhood and the bus station is integrated with the Kingdom Shopping Centre and other leisure facilities. Smaller precincts exist throughout the town. Conspicuous by its absence is a rail connection, although two lines run close by. Markinch Station is situated on the East Coast Main Line and the curiously named Glenrothes with Thornton is a junction halt at the point where the Fife Circle intersects with the trunk route. Both of these stations are a couple of miles away from Glenrothes town centre (as the crow flies) and are not close enough to function as stand-alone rail options (a connecting bus service being required). One has to wonder why the town planners failed to fully integrate rail services, particularly when two (now closed) freight branches actually ran into Glenrothes - one of which now exists as a footpath (Boblingen Way) that bisects the town and has a viaduct at either end. A missed opportunity methinks. The bus links are superb, it has to be said.
I had figured out a course that would encompass parkland, woodland trails, pavement walking and a nature reserve. The vast Riverside Park has a wide variety of facilities and terrain, plus an amusing array of hippo sculptures. I crossed the River Leven and picked up the Fife Pilgrim Way. This 65-mile inland route approximates the medieval passage between the Firth of Forth and the holy town of St Andrews. I soon branched off through residential streets and crossed a road artery on a slender concrete footbridge. After a short woodland wander, I emerged at the ruins of Pitcairn House - the earliest known stone-built dwelling in what's now Glenrothes. Dating from the mid-17th century, the hall style house was most likely two stories in height. The remains of the east gable reach 20 feet but the rest of the building has collapsed to its foundations. Security fencing has been erected to deter people from climbing on the stonework but the effect on photography is a negative one. Can't have it all, I suppose. I pushed on to the north-western fringe of the town, crossed the main road and entered the Formonthills community woodland - basically the foothills of the Lomond twin peaks. I wandered up to a stone circle (pictured above) which I believe is a modern creation. Glenrothes does actually contain the remnants of ancient stone circles at Balfarg and Balbirnie but they lie outside the scope of this report. My schedule for today was coming to an end as I had to catch a local bus back to the town service in order to hook up with the express service home. After a rest by the standing stones, I walked down to Pitcairn Avenue. The following evening, I returned by bus to the point where I'd left off and headed out to Coul Den nature reserve, right on the northern edge of Glenrothes. This area has an industrial past, the small loch once serving as a reservoir for the John Haig whisky bottling plant in Markinch. Partially drained in the 1980s when the factory closed, the loch is now a breeding site for swans, coot, moorhen and little grebe. It also provides a home for frogs, toads and newts, dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies. There is also a variety of plants of national importance, including ragged robin and common spotted orchid.
A viewpoint just beyond the car-park offered an excellent vista of green trees and blue water. A very peaceful location with barely any traffic noise. I set off along one of the gravel paths which led to the Conland Burn. A flight of steps took me out of the valley and into the Formonthills community reserve. A patchwork of paths returned me to the stone circle and I continued past the point where I had caught the bus the previous night. A couple of woodland trails brought me to the Lothrie Burn and I eventually emerged on the A911, where I continued into Riverside Park, following the stream towards its meeting point with the River Leven. I had hoped to check out the redevelopment of Leslie House - a grand Restoration-era mansion that was ravaged by fire in 2009. Completed in 1672, the property sat in extensive grounds and was considered one of the finest country homes in Scotland. After a succession of owners - including the Countess of Rothes who proved a heroine on the Titanic lifeboat she skippered, leading 35 people to safety - Leslie House was gifted to the Church of Scotland in 1952 and transformed into a retirement home. A development firm took over in 2005 and obtained planning permission to convert the property into luxury apartments, but this scheme literally went up in smoke. The gutted shell deteriorated with each passing year and was certainly in a parlous state when I visited a while back. Finally in 2020, Fife Council approved plans to create 24 residential units in the main house, plus six new builds within the grounds and two restored gatehouses. The future of the A-listed mansion and its outbuildings has been secured and a new chapter begins. Work is now well underway but - as I had suspected - access to the construction site was blocked. I managed to find a vantage point that revealed part of the mansion's upper stories and it was pleasing to see evidence of a phoenix-like return.
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