Blebo Craigs, or Blebocraigs is a village in rural

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

, Scotland. The village contains around one hundred houses on the south-facing slope of the hill. Blebo Craigs is 5 miles from

St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...

Geography

Most of the village lies on a sunny south facing slope. It borders a wood which is open to the public for walking and other leisure activities. The area of forest is the site of old quarries. The forest covers a steep slope that falls away to the cliffs of Dura Den. The village hall lies at the heart of village social life. At the door of the village hall one can find a map showing the layout of the settlement. A book describing life in the village over the last hundred years is available via the village hall secretary.

History

"Craig" is a Scots word meaning rocky promontory. Two large quarries (one for sandstone - still visible, one for roof slate can be found in the woods. Its sandstone was used to build many of the area's buildings. The quarry's galleries slowly shrank under the weight of 8 metres of overhanging rock. Most of the village plan is based on two industrial developments. The straight road east of the postbox was built along the north border of Blebo House estate lands, over Clatto Hill, then (almost) straight to Strathkinness to take the products of the Blebo Mills to

Guardbridge Guardbridge () is a village in the north-east of Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is approximately north-west of St Andrews, and is situated on the estuary of the River Eden, at the junction of the A91 road between St Andrews and Stirli ...

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

and

, bypassing the toll fees at

Dairsie Dairsie, or Osnaburgh, is a village and parish in north-east Fife, Scotland. It is south-southwest of Leuchars Junction, and east-northeast of Cupar on the A91 Stirling to St Andrews road. The village grew out of two smaller settlements (call ...

, and on the main Cupar to St Andrews roads. As the sandstone and slate quarry operations expanded into a year-round activity, (rather than transient and seasonal as they had been since Medieval times) houses and schools were built along the road after the 1830s. The architectural, and other land use history, of the village is dominated by the houses of the estates of Clatto, Blebo and

Kemback Kemback (Scottish Gaelic: ''Ceann Bac'') is a village and parish in Fife, Scotland, located east of Cupar. The present village was developed in the 19th century to house those working the flax mills on the nearby Ceres Burn. From 1681 the minis ...

, each with their own histories going back hundreds of years. All three have fine buildings. Three notable owners were the Lairds of Kemback;- an important Roman Catholic family after the Reformation, D.C Thompson of D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd publishers of newspapers, and children's weekly comics such as ''

The Beano ''The Beano'' (formerly ''The Beano Comic'') is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it published its 4000th issue in August 2019. Popular and ...

'', and

William Low William Low & Co plc, popularly referred to as Willie Low's and latterly marketed as Wm Low, was a chain of supermarkets headquartered in Dundee, Scotland. Initially founded in 1868, Low's had branches throughout Scotland, North East England, Cu ...

, owner of the food retailer of the same name.

Connections with Dundee

Flax mill workers in Dura Den and

originally from

forged connections with families still in the Angus town. The

Boys' Brigade The Boys' Brigade (BB) is an international interdenominational Christianity, Christian youth organisation, conceived by the Scottish businessman William Alexander Smith (Boys' Brigade), Sir William Alexander Smith to combine drill and fun acti ...

, 17th Company (1919 onward), then 5th Company (from the mid-1930s onward) held camps in the small wood and fields at the east end of the village until the mid-1980s. It was felt that the country air was a break from the polluted coal-dust atmosphere in the streets and congested air inside the

jute Jute ( ) is a long, rough, shiny bast fibre that can be Spinning (textiles), spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', of the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ...

mills in Dundee at the time. Weekend and summer camps were offered, with the support of the village and local farmers. A large collection of camping photographs are held by 5th Company, Dundee, and a film from 1953 is held in the Scottish National Film Archive. The village telephone box was used by the boys to earn their merit badges, making their first personal call to an officer, or officer's wife in Dundee, then answering a call correctly.

Economy

Blebo Craigs has little economic activity. A locally run post office is located in the village hall. Historically the village had a

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

but this was converted into a house.

References

External links

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Blebocraigs at Fife Place-name Data
{{authority control Villages in Fife