Pettycur beach
Yesterday’s run up to the House of Bruar yielded some nice new winter clothes, a decent lunch, and the never-fails joy of a Scottish Road Trip. Perthshire is no less beautiful in her winter costume, half-dormant in the pale post-solstice sunlight incident at 56 degrees North. Other travelers were breaking their journeys North or South at Bruar, schlepping en famille between the Highlands and Stevenage, or some such other overpopulated, roundabouted regional locus of la petite bourgeoisie. Thwarting one of our aspirations for the journey, by the time we’d had lunch, the shelves had been cleaned of steak pies.
Today, therefore, we struck out toward the Lang Toun and picked up one of the Buffalo Farm’s excellent pies, pausing only for a brief look at the pygmy goats before heading home along the coast road. The wind was up, with a weather warning of gusty conditions. No more excuse was needed to stop at Pettycur Beach between Kinghorn and Burntisland.
The first thing that struck me when we parked up was the low sun, shimmering on the moving waters of the Forth river looking West of South towards Granton. I took too many photographs of this, hypnotised by the constant shifting of light and textures in the cool waters. Frozen by a fast shutter, each image of the waves make a landscape worthy of a lifetime’s exploration, with peaks, valleys and plains carved out in an instant.
Further Westward, the three bridges mark the narrowest gap in the river East of Longannet, where ferries ran for 800 years until the first road bridge was opened by the old Queen in 1964. There is talk of a new ferry from Burntisland to Granton, apparently. In the picture above, you can see the parasail of some brave soul out on the water. We were joined on the beach by another couple of parasurfers who showed no hesitation in braving the cold water.
Pettycur is one of our favourite beaches, not least because it’s only a short run along the coast from home. Today’s visit was just the tonic we needed at the turn of the year, to clear away the old, to remember those loved and lost, and appreciate those still with us as we head into 2025, which looks like it might be quite an exciting New Year. We both hope yours is as peaceful and fulfilling as we want ours to be.