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Tour
Collessie
Extract
from Slater's Directory published 1852.
"Collessie is a parish lying to the north of Kettle.
It is 8 miles in length by 5 in breadth. It consists chiefly
of fine enclosed lands, and some fine plantations rising from
the Eden to the hills on the north. The village, of no importance
in the way of business, is situated 3 miles from Auchtermuchty
and 6 from Cupar. The railway passes through the parish. The
parish church is a neat building surmounted by a spire."
Collessie
is a rural hamlet in North Fife clustered around a knoll dominated
by the church. The Parish Church, 1838-39, though too large
for the hamlet, is appropriate for the whole parish. The prominently
pinnacled tower commands wide views across the Howe of Fife.
There are still a few relics of its weaving past, and on the
grounds, just west of the church, are two late 18th century
detached weaving sheds, one dated 1662. Under a weeping willow
the Kirkyard Dyke, 1609, contains a Late Gothic gateway. Strad
Cottage, 1839, has stone canopies over the windows. Rose Cottage
is a splendid thatched house formed out of three late 18th
century weaver's cottages. The Primary School, 1846, integrating
both school and house features a belfry.
Collessie
Man
A
Bronze Age standing-stone in a field near Collessie in The Kingdom
Of Fife has the earliest depiction of a Fifer ( person from
Fife ) carved on it. The carvings date from Pictish times (6th7th
century) and the figure is a naked warrior. He carries a rectangular
shield and a spear which has a round object or weight on its
lower end.
The Romans, who fought only summer campaigns in Scotland, portrayed
their Pictish enemies as naked barbarians. Both rectangular
and circular shields are seen in Pictish sculpture and there
are also carvings on cave walls at East Wemyss, Fife which show
similar shields to that carried by 'Collessie Man'.
His spear is of a special type of its time, peculiar to Scotland.
The Roman historian, Dio Cassius writing about.AD 200
described it as 'a sort of short spear with a bronze apple
on the end of the shaft, so that when it is shaken it clashes'.
The stone stood erect in the field for centuries until the autumn
of 1994, when argricultural operations caused it to fall. The
stone was re-erected in a concrete 'doughnut' base and
cleaned by Historic Scotland in August 1995. A small scale excavation
suggested that the stone had been levered into a pre-prepared
pit and then soil and small pebbles chocked around the base
as consolidation with larger cobbles inserted as packing.
Birnie
Loch Nature Reserve
A
local nature reserve in the Howe of Fife to the south of the
A91 and the village of Collessie. It was created in 1991 from
the restored workings of Kinloch Quarry and donated to the people
of North-East Fife by the family of J.S. Baird & Sons, in
association with Pioneer Aggregates (UK) Ltd.
If
you would like to visit this area as part of a highly personalized
small group tour of my native Scotland please e-mail me:
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