Photographing Scotlands Fife Coast.
There’s something oddly fascinating about UK coastal towns. They’re often a collision of different worlds, where natural beauty, tourist tat, and traces of industrial decay sit side by side.
Lately, I’ve been moving away from trying to capture conventional beauty in my images. Instead, I’m more interested in finding beauty in less obvious places, or in turning my camera away from the expected views and focusing on the rougher edges of a location. In that sense, a UK coastal town feels like the perfect place to work.
I recently spent a couple of days on the Fife coast of Scotland, known for its string of small fishing villages. These images are from St Monans and Crail. Visiting out of season, in early December, only added to their understated charm.
I only had a few fleeting hours in each place, but they proved to be rewarding locations to photograph.
The Fife Coast on the Map.
Scotland’s Fife Coast is easy to reach and makes an excellent destination for landscape and coastal photographers. Located just north of Edinburgh, the Fife Coast can be accessed by car via the Forth bridges, with most East Neuk villages reached in around 90 minutes from Edinburgh.
The East Neuk of Fife is home to some of the most photogenic coastal villages in Scotland. St Monans is known for its colourful harbour, sea wall, and coastal path, offering strong compositions for long exposures and moody seascapes.
Crail features a compact harbour, colourful doors, and views across the North Sea, making it a favourite for sunrise and architectural detail photography.
Pittenweem combines a working fishing harbour with narrow streets, textured stonework, and layered coastal views that reward slow, observational photography.
Anstruther, the largest of the villages, offers a mix of harbours, beaches, and open coastal views, with changing light and weather providing constant photographic variety.
Together, these villages make the Fife Coast a rich and rewarding location for photographers interested in coastal, landscape, and documentary-style photography in Scotland.
