North East Fife is a lovely part of Scotland and the old market town of Cupar is always well worth a visit. We drove up and parked the car in the free car park near to the primary school. From there we walked out of town and onto the Moor Road. This is an ancient drovers road and was used by farmers and traders taking their produce to market from the nearby farms and villages. The path itself is shaded and rises steadily uphill with just enough gradient to have us puffing and panting by the time we reached the top. After about a mile and a half we entered the beautiful little village of Ceres.
Although small, this is a place steeped in history and is the home of the Fife Folk Museum which is well worth a visit. The Griselda Hill Pottery is also to be found in Ceres and this is where the famous Wemyss ware is now recreated - very collectable in it's own right!
There really is a whole load of history in Ceres and no shortage of eating and drinking places either. If you visit on the last Saturday of June each year you will catch the historic highland games taking place on the perfectly manicured village green.Heading out of the village we joined Waterless Road. Like the Moor Road, this is an ancient right of way and although today it is little more than a farm track, it was once part of the main route through Fife from Broughty Ferry to Pettycur - the motorway of it's time!. As we headed up towards Denhead farm the countryside really opened up giving us some great views of rural Fife.
Across to the right we could see the chimneys of Hill of Tarvit House so we cut through the farm and across the main(ish) road, following narrow paths and over an ancient arched packhorse bridge before heading up the hill towards the mansion. A short detour takes you into the grounds of house which is maintained by the National Trust for Scotland. This is a beautiful showpiece property and is well worth a visit. The hill which extends from behind the house rises to only 211 metres but affords fantastic views over the whole of Fife and up the Tayside coast - maybe we'll climb it one day!!
Picture of Graham standing on the packhorse bridge.Continuing down the road, we turned left up the long driveway towards Whitehill Farm, through the farm itself and then across a couple of fields and back onto the Moor Road. We then simply retraced our by now fairly muddy steps back down towards Cupar.
A quick circuit of the town via the railway station, County Buildings and the historic Mercat Cross led us back to the car, but not before we'd stopped of at that famous Cupar bakers for some light refreshment. http://www.fisheranddonaldson.com/
All in all a very enjoyable walk on a lovely crisp autumn day. Easy enough going but good boots essential!
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