A dormitory town on the NE coast of Fife, situated at the mouth of the Firth of Tay 11 miles (18 km) north of St Andrews.

Known as Ferryport-on-Craig until 1846, it was for many centuries a ferry port linking Fife with Dundee and Broughty Ferry. The town developed in the 19th century, firstly with the arrival of the railway and the creation of a railway ferry in the 1840s, and secondly with the opening of the Tay Rail Bridge in 1878. In 1847 its harbour was rebuilt by Thomas Grainger for the Northern Railway Co. to accommodate paddle steamers.

Tayport has an 18-hole golf course (Scotscraig), and a tower on Hare Law to the west commemorates the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815.