Elie’s colourful history

The village’s harbour dates back to the 16th Century.

The original burgh comprised the linked villages of Elie and Earlsferry, which were formally merged in 1930.

It is said that MacDuff, the Earl of Fife, crossed the Forth from Earlsferry in 1054 while fleeing from King Macbeth

James Braid, the five-times Open champion and course designer, was born in Elie.

The stone-built Lady’s Tower was built in the 17th Century by Lady Janet Anstruther as a changing room for bathing.

Elie’s golf course has a periscope in the starter’s hut taken from the submarine HMS Excalibur, which was scrapped in 1968.

The Floral Clock in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens was originally constructed in 1903 using a mechanism salvaged from the village’s parish church.

The Fife Coast Railway served Elie from 1863 but was closed in the 1960s.

North Berwick is only seven miles from the village by boat, across the Firth of Forth – but by car it is 74 miles.