retiredmartin

Back to the First Great Scottish Saunter of June 2022, and one of those joyful discoveries of a place for the first time.

Yes, you, Burntisland, tempting me with your free overnight parking by the Leisure Centre*.

I didn’t really park that close to the sea, but others did.

I arrived at the same time as the funfair, and somehow resisted the dodgems and candy floss,

on the way to The Sands, the only cask outlet and therefore the obligatory GBG entry in town.

It feels like a holiday resort pub, the sort you get on caravan parks, but actually had a fairly upmarket menu.

The barman was well-trained, executing a perfect pull of the barman’s pick, a Stewart Blonde from the unmarked pump (again) and wiping the glass with a cloth. It looked murky, but tasted good (3+), if a tiny bit fizzy.

Unmarked cask is a Gaelic speciality, but since only tourists and tickers ask for cask it hardly matters

Two things let the Sands down. An absence of pork scratchings, and a (polite) request to move from from the low seat to a high table to allow a group of diners to sit there. I was there first !

An early night with tea in the campervan; a feast of Co-op prawns reduced from £3.29 to 55p and ALMOST in date.

In the morning I was somehow still alive, and Burntisland looked gorgeous. If Aberdour is a mini Broughty Ferry, then Burntisland has touches of St Andrews about it.

You may laugh, but you know I’m right.

Some graceful streets, elegant churches, keg pubs,

art on every corner,

and in The Roasting Project a café to match anything in Fife’s university town.

Poached eggs and haggis in curry sauce on sourdough for breakfast. Mmm. I know how to live on the edge.

*Let’s hope the Council don’t read this and ban campervans like the whole of Cornwall has.