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This article is about the area in Scotland. For other uses, see Fife (disambiguation).

Fife (Fìobh in Gaelic) is a council area of Scotland, situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with landward boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire. It was originally one of the Pictish kingdoms, known as Fib, and is commonly known as the Kingdom of Fife within Scotland.

It is a lieutenancy area, and was a county of Scotland until 1975. It was very occasionally known by the anglification Fifeshire in old documents and maps compiled by English cartographers and authors. A person from Fife is known as a Fifer.

From 1975 to 1996 Fife was a local government region divided into three districts — Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and North-East Fife. Since 1996 the functions of the district councils have been exercised by the unitary Fife Council.

The historical town of St Andrews is located on the east coast of Fife. It is well known for one of the most ancient universities in Europe, and as the home of golf.

History of Fife

Popularly known as 'the wee kingdom', the region of Fife (formerly the county of Fife) takes its name from Fibh, a 7th centruy Pictish king. Fibh was one of the seven sons of Cruithne, a warrior king who ruled over a wide area of ancient Scotland.

Legend has it that upon the death of Cruithne, the Pictish realm - known collectively as 'Pictavia' - was divided into seven sub-kingdoms or provinces, one of which became Fife. The name is recorded as Fib in 1150 and Fif in 1165.

The Kingdom of Fife probably also owes its popular epithet to the fact that its distinctive shape - bounded to the north by the Firth of Tay and to the South by the Firth of Forth - makes a naturally self-contained region whose boundaries have changed little over the ages.

King James VI of Scotland described Fife as a 'beggar's mantle fringed with gold' - the golden fringe being the coast and its chain of little ports with their thriving fishing fleets and rich trading links with the Low Countries.

Geography of Fife

Fife is a peninsula in eastern Scotland bordered on the north by the River Tay estuary, on the east by the North Sea and the Firth of Forth to the south. The route to the west is partially blocked by the mass of the Ochill Hills. Almost all traffic into and out of the county has to pass over one of three bridges, south on The Forth Road Bridge, west on the Kincardine Bridge or north east via The Tay Road Bridge, the exception being traffic headed north on the *.

There are a number of extinct volcanic features, such as the Lomond Hills which rise above rolling farmland. The coast has many fine but small harbours, from the industrial docks in Burntisland and Rosyth to the fishing villages of the East Neuk such as Anstruther and Pittenweem.

Towns and villages

Places of interest

Notable Fifers

See Category:Natives of Fife

Sports

Council political composition

External links

See also

In William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, the Thane of Fife is Macduff.

Fife | Peninsulas of Scotland

Fife (Schottland) | Fife (Skotlando) | Fife (Écosse) | Fife | Fife | Fife | Fife | Файф (область) | Fife | Fife | Fife

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Fife".

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