Walking Breaks

Fife has a great mix of easy scenic coastal walks for relaxed days out and some of Britain’s best cliff walks for a more exciting adventure.

Walking and exploring Elie, East Neuk, Fife

The walk from Shell Bay to Elie taking in the Elie Chain Walk is rated as one of the top 20 walks in Britain and probably the most exciting for children. Book a week at Elie Cottage and start exploring!

Elie cottage the best base for a self catering walking holiday on the Fife Coastal Path

Elie chain walk from west bay

Located right in the middle of the Fife Coastal Path, Elie Cottage is one of many fife self catering holiday options that are perfect to start a walking holiday from. There are easy going coastal paths both left and right out of the front door. Plus the mighty chain walk just over the golf course. The Fife Coastal Path will also take you past most of the great golf courses which will catch your eye if its more of a golfing holiday you are after.

Useful Quick Links

Fife Coastal Path – fantastic cliff walks, sandy beaches, grassy dunes

Millennium Cycle Way – all Elie, the East Neuk and Fife

Don’t Miss

East Neuk Annual Festival – a feast of world-class classical music

Pittenweem Arts Festival – 80+ exhibitions of paintings, prints and crafts

What Others Say

Financial Times – 20 Best Walks in Britain and Ireland – Elie Chain Walk

The Telegraph – Elie Chain Walk “Probably the most exciting walk in Britain for children”

The Guardian – Britain’s top 10 coastal walks

Visit Scotland – Perfect Walks “The Elie Chain Walk”

The Independent – Scenic views, sea spray and superstition in old East Neuk

The Scotsman – Fishing villages’ past will have you hooked

Financial Times – Top 20 Best Walks in Great Britain and Ireland – The highlight of the Fife Coastal Path is unquestionably the section from Elie to Shell Bay where the coastal path splits one way over the headland to Kingcraig Point, the other down the cliff-face in an exciting scramble along the UK’s only via ferrata (or chain-assisted) scramble.Make sure you make time to look for “eggs” on the rock platform known as the “Dragon’s Nesting Ground”

The Telegraph – Elie Chain Walk – Probably the most exciting walk in Britain for Children Only a mile and a half long the Chain Walk forms a side-loop to the tranquil 90-mile Fife Coastal Path and is best tackle from one of the many great fife holiday cottages. The fun chained section – a kind of British via ferrate – hugs the sea from Elie village, careering round the cliffs of Kin Craig Point to Shell Bay. Head for the beach below Elie then walk south-west to a sign telling you to take care. The glinting steel chain fixed to the cliffs signals the start of your scramble. Together with footholds, a series of eight fixed chains 10 to 50 feet long provide something to cling to as you slither up, down, along and over alarming rocks while waves crash in from the Firth of Forth. Children aged nine and over can tackle this breathtaking route, which defies being termed a mere “walk”. This is pure adventure. Stay away near high tide.

The Guardian – Britain’s top 10 coastal walks The section of the Fife Coastal Path between Pittenween and Elie includes two ruined castles plus good rock pools whose investigation for mini marine beasts may well distract you from going all the way. If you do make the distance, other rewards are the finely restored windmill and associated saltpans at St Monans and of course “Pittenweem, Pittenweem, Every fisher laddies’ dream …” You have go to find out why. Stay in one of the many fine self catering fife options.

Visit Scotland – Perfect Walks “The Elie Chain Walk” The Elie chain walk dates back to the 1920s and is best tackled from the golden sands of West Bay, which runs along Elie golf course. Once at sea level the coastal rock formations are stunning, with a series of wide ridges extending out to sea with gulches and caves between. The “walk” is best attempted about an hour after high tide when the sea is on the ebb.

The Independent – Scenic views, sea spray and superstition in old East Neuk It’s the sound of the sea that draws you back to the East Neuk of Fife. Even on a calm day its murmurings and whisperings are everywhere. And when storm clouds gather, it charges in like a wild beast, hurling massive sheets of swirling spray over the high sea walls, drenching the streets of the villages, splashing the very doorsteps of the houses that huddle by the shores of the Firth of Forth. But the day we walked along the coastal path from Anstruther to Pittenweem, its mood was benign. The winter sunshine laid a golden trail that danced and shimmered on the water, and only the occasional momentary feather of spray drifting across Anstruther’s outermost pier gave any hint of its latent power.

The Scotsman – Fishing villages’ past will have you hooked Long popular with walkers, the Fife Coastal Path is an impressive place to enjoy a lengthy walk with each corner revealing another secret. The trail is peppered with historic castles and caves, quaint fishing villages and award winning beaches, big cliffs, long sandy beaches, internationally important estuaries and wildlife reserves. The stretch from Lower Largo – the birthplace of Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe – through Elie to Pittenweem is particularly worthwhile.