Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ì
The Lobster Store
34 Shoregate
T
01333
450476.
The little wooden shack down at the harbour
cooks the freshest takeaway lobster and crab you're ever
likely to find. Take your pick from the condemned
crustaceans scuttling around the tank next to the shack
(£10 a whole lobster or £6 a crab).
Tues-Sun
noon-4pm.
Crail Harbour Gallery and Tearoom
Shoregate
T
01333 451896,
W
crailharbourgallery.co.uk.
Discreet café/gallery tucked into a cottage on the way
down to the harbour, with low timbers, rough stone
flooring and a terrace overlooking the Isle of May.
Predominantly serving fresh coffee, cakes and toasted
paninis, plus a few cooked meals including dressed crab
for £12.
Jan-Oct daily 10.30am-5pm.
SHOPPING
Crail Pottery
75 Nethergate
T
01333 451212,
W
crailpottery.com.
An unmissable stop for its wide range
of stoneware, terracotta pots and painted earthenware,
hand thrown on the wheel in the workshop.
Mon-Fri
9am-5pm, Sat & Sun 10am-5pm.
Anstruther and around
he largest of the East Neuk fishing harbours,
ANSTRUTHER
retains an attractively
old-fashioned air and no shortage of character in its houses and narrow streets. Life
here mostly centres on or around its part cobbled promenade, which separates the fish
and chip shops, cafés and ice creameries of the cheerful Shore Street from the old
harbour where small pleasure yachts vie for limited mooring space.
Scottish Fisheries Museum
East Shore, harbour • April-Sept Mon-Sat 10am-5.30pm, Sun 11am-5pm; Oct-March Mon-Sat 10am-4.30pm, Sun noon-4.30pm • £7 •
T
01333 310628,
W
scotfishmuseum.org
Set in an atmospheric complex of sixteenth- to nineteenth-century buildings with
timber ceilings and wooden floors, the wonderfully unpretentious
Scottish Fisheries
Museum
chronicles the history of the Scottish fishing and whaling industries with
ingenious displays, including a whole series of exquisite model ships, built on site by a
resident model-maker.
8
Isle of May
Boat trips
Anstruther Harbour
T
07957 585200, isleofmayferry.com • April-Sept Mon-Sat one trip daily at varying times according to
the tides; journey takes 50min each way and 2hr 30min spent on island • £24
Located on the rugged
Isle of May
, several miles offshore from Anstruther, is a
lighthouse erected in 1816 by Robert Louis Stevenson's grandfather, as well as the
remains of Scotland's first lighthouse, built in 1636, which burnt coals as a beacon. he
island is now a nature reserve and bird sanctuary. Between April and July the dramatic
sea cliffs are covered with breeding kittiwakes, razorbills, guillemots and shags, while
inland there are thousands of pu
ns and eider ducks. Boat-trippers should bring warm
waterproof clothing and a picnic.
Scotland's Secret Bunker
4 miles inland from Anstruther on the B940 signposted from the St Andrews road (B9131) • Mid-March-Oct daily 10am-5pm • £10 •
T
01333 310301,
W
www.secretbunker.co.uk
Scotland's Secret Bunker
is as idiosyncratic a tourist attraction as you are likely to
find. Long a top-secret part of the military establishment, the bunker was opened to
the public in 1994 following its decommissioning at the end of the Cold War. Above
ground is an innocent-looking farmhouse, although the various pieces of military
hardware parked outside and the rows of barbed wire fencing hint that something
more sinister is afoot. From the farmhouse, you walk down a long ramp to the
bunker, which comprises a vast subterranean complex of operations rooms 100ft
below ground and encased in 15ft of reinforced concrete. In the event of a nuclear
war this was to have become Scotland's new administrative centre, with room for
