A day at the beach in Limekilns, Fife
Most people, when they go to Fife for a day out from Edinburgh, turn right when they pass over the Firth of Forth. And there’s good reason to – that’s where St. Andrews, Dunfermline and Burntisland are, as well as Deep Sea World. These, as well as many other towns and villages are beautiful places to spend a day. But if you take a left at the bridge and travel west instead, you’ll find a gorgeous coastline that’s perfect for the kids. We did that recently and had a brilliant family day out at Limekilns in Fife.
The historic village of Limekilns
First, a short history lesson. Dating back to the 14th century, this village has a natural harbour protected by a remarkable rocky ledge called The Ghauts. The abundance of limestone was what put this place on the map, as this was an important ingredient in fertiliser and concrete. However, these days it is a quaint village with a friendly population.
Limekilns has a short beach but fantastic views across the water towards the other coast, specifically to Blackness Castle. A pair of binoculars will help see this in more detail. There is a main car park that holds maybe 50-ish cars, as well as on-street parking. The carpark takes you straight onto the beach, which is super useful for when you have kids in tow.
As ever with a beach-side location, you get more bang for your buck when the tide is low. This is simply because there is more beach to play on! It’s a good idea to go when the tide is going out, that maximises the amount of beach you’ll get to spend on throughout the day. You can check tide times for Limekilns here.
Why visit Limekilns with kids?
There’s one reason and one reason only I wanted to go to Limekilns.
Fossils!
I love fossil hunting, and I want to get my kids into it. The easiest way to do this is to be able to pick up rocks on the beach with clear fossils already visible, and that’s something you can do here – if you know what you are looking for. With all the limestone, fossils can be plentiful, especially a type called crinoids. These were ancient animals that actually looked like plants. They had a stem and this is what you will find here. Here’s some photos to show you:
You can also find coral stems here, which are preserved in fine detail. These are beautiful rocks to find and keep. These rocks are all from the Carboniferous period, so we’re looking at fossils that are 320 million years old. Let that sink in. That’s a heck of a long time. Dinosaurs died our 65 million years ago, so what you find on the beach here lived and died before there ever was such a thing as a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Sure, what you will find aren’t dinosaurs, but they are fascinating relics of a long-gone world and great to keep and remember your day. I also had my geology hammer and let the boys have a go hammering some rocks. You don’t need to do this here – the fossils are already visible – but who doesn’t like a good hammering?
Spending time in Limekilns
We enjoyed spending most of our day playing on the beaches and watching the boats. There was even a huge ferry boat in the distance, but it didn’t sail anywhere (boo!). We were lucky that a few of the yachts were off to have a race, so we got to see people ferry to their boats and sail off. For lunch we took a picnic, because that way you can eat what you want, when you want and wherever you want. And we had a lovely posh cream tea in a box too! Yum! We choose to eat on a bench looking over the water, watching a big rain cloud pass over the opposite coast!
There are eateries here though and places to stay over. Coorie by the Coast looked really super nice, and if we were going to stop for something to eat we’d definitely have gone here. They are even dog friendly!
And then we saw the biggest cloud of all float over towards us. Using exceptional skill and judgement, we all managed to get packed up and in the car before the torrential rain hit. Smug mode was activated! However even in the rain, this part of Fife looked lovely.
We’re going to further explore Limekilns in Fife and more along this coast (and of course find more fossils!) and we encourage you all to do the same. If you have any recommendations for places to visit or stay, let us know!