Pettycur Beach

 

It's been so long since the walkers have met up. This was a deliberately short one today to check that everyone was still happy to carry on with the group and also to keep it local so that we didn't need to use our cars for transport.  After church and a very hurried cheese peece in the hall, we eco warriors took the bus to Kinghorn, and gathered at the memorial. 

Even with a few call offs we still had twelve hooded walkers making our way down Pettycur Road in the drizzle. Visibility was good enough to see ahead that the tide was out, just as the Timetides chart forecast. Very few people on the beach today. Partly because it was light rain/ drizzle and partly because visitors have been scared off this week due to the announcements from SEPA of sewage escaping from the Kinghorn burn into Kinghorn Harbour. Obviously this can cause harm to humans and animals so people were sensibly avoiding the area. However, there were no such scary reports for Pettycur Beach and so we toddled down there and found a perfect spot to draw a labyrinth in the wet sand. 

 We were getting a fair skelp of the wind but the plan went ahead and a few of us took turns to draw the labyrinth. Next, just to please the walk leader who recently returned from Iona where sand Labyrinths are popular, we all walked the maze and even  sang an Iona song while we did so. Dafties all. But thank you for cooperating 👏

 One photo for the blogsite and we returned back across the sands and up, up Pettycur Road again. Not so sprightly going up the hill then.  A wee turn off at the doo dells which led down to Kinghorn Beach. We talked about Sheila Zieleniec's summer dancing shows which used to happen right next to the Lifeboat station. That was also where the seaside mission was held in the 60s. Our minister was just remembering seaside missions in church this morning. A lovely new wooden building was being built where the  old couple had their wee cafe  until not so long ago. We looked at a house which someone thought Church of Scotland used to own and bring children there for a wee holiday. I'll find out more about that and add into the blog later.** It's lovely to walk along the front - people do a nice job keeping their houses spick and span. Visitors will get a good impression of the town because the harbour home occupiers take care of their property and flower tubs. Thank you.

Coffee stop today? Kirk By the Sea. Kinghorn church members were very obliging, organising the opening of the building and providing refreshments for us, and letting us use the facilities. We had a history lesson from Mary Tulloch, a Kinghorn Church stalwart, so it was very worthwhile popping in there. Such a lovely church, but the death knell has sounded there as with so many other historical buildings across  the Church of Scotland. The impact that closing beloved churches is having on the faithful is measureless. We shall never forget this period in church history.

A date was set for the next walk  to Falkland and we even got a volunteer to lead it. We said the walkers' prayer then scattered in several directions on the way home - some by train, two in  cars and four decided to walk back to Kirkcaldy as we hadn't had a long enough walk this afternoon. Lesson learned there then....

** both white houses on the front, called Providence house, belonged to the Church of Scotland around 70 years ago. Children were invited there to spend a holiday, older children in one house and babies in the other. Adults spent holidays in the unpainted house behind. I think there is a bit of interesting history here so I'll look into it further. Maybe some of these churches and church halls that are being discarded across Scotland right now could be turned into seaside homes for people whose income doesn't stretch to taking holidays. I can feel another project coming on ...