Elie and Earlsferry

The History of Elie in Fife with videos and audio.

A swipe of your device will allow you to see and experience their journey and the history of Elie and Earlsferry through the ages from the 13th century to the current time. With the help of Dr Alan Miller and his team at St. Andrews University, Elie and Earlsferry History Society has created a heritage mobile phone application which captures the history of the area through images, audios, text and digital reconstruction. A grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund has made the whole thing possible.

The heritage mobile phone App uses modern technology to let you journey back through time to the 13th century chapel at Earlsferry. As you walk into the chapel, the bell tolls, seagulls swoop overhead. In the flickering candlelight the pilgrims are preparing to say prayers and give thanks for a safe journey across the river Forth from North Berwick to Earlsferry. They are resting in the chapel before setting off to walk to the cathedral at St. Andrews. An aerial view of the bay shows where their boat landed and the pilgrims climbed up to the chapel, cold and tired after their sea crossing.

In addition to the pilgrims, information on the industrial heritage of the area including weaving, mining and fishing can be accessed via the app. In addition, the story is told of transport and communications through the ages, starting with the introduction of turnpikes and toll roads. You can listen to some songs the weavers in Earlsferry sang as they worked in their cottages until the Town Hall bell tolled at 8.00pm, signalling the end of the working day.

The App also covers the history of the Mars Boys, who under-privileged boys who spent time from the age of nine on board the Mars Training ship moored off Wormit. The boys were looked after and provided with skills enabling them to make a living once they left the ship. Each year, like the pilgrims, they travelled - sometimes by foot - to Elie, where they holidayed for six weeks using the Granary at Elie Harbour as their base. An advance party was sent to clear out the rats, as the Granary was at that time a working building. Two songs about the Mars Boys have been composed for the App by Gordon Douglas, who has undertaken considerable research on the Training Ship Mars.

For more information and advice contact Graham Johnston at [email protected] or Angela Anderson at [email protected] or telephone 01333 330 270