Aberdour travel guide

Aberdour (Gaelic: Obar Dobhair) is a scenic and historic village on the south coast of Fife, Scotland. It is situated on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, looking south to the Island of Inchcolm and its Abbey, and to Leith and Edinburgh beyond. The village's sinuous main street lies a little inland from the coast. Narrow lanes run off it, providing access to the more hidden parts of the village and the shoreline itself. The village nestles between the larger coastal towns of Burntisland to the east and Dalgety Bay to the west.
The origins of the village lie with its harbour, where the Dour Burn enters the River Forth. The place-name itself is Pictish, implying an origin in the Dark Ages: aber 'confluence'. The -dour element, referring to the Burn, means simply 'water' (archaic dobur), and is unconnected to the Scots/English 'dour'. For much of its history Aberdour was two villages, Wester Aberdour and Easter Aberdour, on either side of the Dour Burn. Although this distinction was blurred by the 19th century arrival of the railway, it is still visible today.
Virtually between the two former settlements, though actually part of Easter Aberdour, lies Aberdour Castle. This started life as a modest 'hall house' on a site overlooking the Dour Burn in the 1200s. The oldest part of the present semi-ruin constitutes one of the earliest surviving stone castles in mainland Scotland. Over the next four hundred years the Castle was successively developed according to contemporary architectural ideas. Notable are the parts, still largely roofed, built by the Earls of Morton, with refined Renaissance detail, in the second half of the 16th century. A fire in the late 1600s was followed by some repairs, but in 1725 the family purchased 17th century Aberdour House, on the west side of the burn and in Wester Aberdour, and the medieval Castle was allowed to fall into relative decay. Aberdour Castle is now in the care of Historic Scotland and open to the public (entrance charge). After a period of dereliction Aberdour House was developed for residential use in the early 1990s. (...) more....