FRINGE OF GOLD
There are few places that illicit the spark of excitement necessary to turn an early rise from chore into pleasure than the prospect of a day spent on what King James VI once described as a “Fringe of gold on a beggar’s mantle.”
When King James VI described the East Neuk as such, he was dismissive of the poverty in the heartland of what many still describe as the ‘Kingdom of Fife’. Yet as tens of thousands of visitors each year will attest, the fishing villages of Crail, Anstruther and Pittenweem continue to sparkle.
I have a set routine, one chiseled in stone, when it comes to visiting the East Neuk of Fife. I like to rise early, breakfast in Glasgow and then set out on the road before 8am, so that before 10am I’m pulling into Balgove Larder farmshop, just outside St Andrews, to pick up a Scotch egg and a few other culinary comestibles – in summer Balgove also hosts a
