Fife Guide

Whatever you want to explore - the country's best-kept beaches, the world home of golf in St Andrews, the delightful East Neuk fishing villages, the historic capital of Dunfermline, it's all in the Kingdom of Fife.

You'll discover a relaxed, refreshing and high-quality environment that's just 30 minutes from Edinburgh, but a world away from the city's grime and noise.

Here are some facts about Fife:

• The Links Market in Kirkcaldy, Fife, takes place along the town's Esplanade, at over a mile in length, it is thought to be Europe's longest street fair that started in 1304, it attracts around a quarter of a million visitors every year.

• The fictional character Macduff, who in Shakespeare's play kills Macbeth, was the "Thane of Fife".

• The Fife town of Falkirk has a name in four different languages: Egglesbreth in Old English, Falkirk in Scots, La Chapelle de Fayerie in French, and An Eaglais Bhreach in Gaelic. It is the only place in Britain for which this is the case.

• The region is commonly known as the "Kingdom of Fife" in Scotland. This comes from the fact that it was one of the Pictish kingdoms in the Dark Ages.

• St Andrews, a city on the east coast of Fife, is known the world over as the home of golf. People come from all over the world to play on the golf courses around the city. The most famous course of these is the "Old Course", which claims to be the oldest golf course in the world. Golfers have been playing here for almost 500 years.

• The Fife Flyers are the oldest ice hockey club in the UK. They were founded in 1938 and have won over 60 league titles and cups over the years.

• It's thought that Daniel Defoe was inspired to write Robinson Crusoe after hearing about Alexander Selkirk. Selkirk was a sailor from Fife who spent four years as a castaway on an uninhabited island in the Juan Fernndez archipelago in the South Pacific before being found and returning safely. In 1966 the island on which he stayed was renamed 'Robinson Crusoe Island'.

Here are just some places to visit in and around Fife: