22 Facts About Fife

Fife is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland.

Fife is Scotland's third largest local authority area by population.

Fife, bounded to the north by the Firth of Tay and to the south by the Firth of Forth, is a natural peninsula whose political boundaries have changed little over the ages.

Fife was an important royal and political centre from the reign of King Malcolm III onwards, as the leaders of Scotland gradually moved southwards away from their ancient strongholds around Scone.

Earl of Fife was until the 15th century considered the principal peer of the Scottish realm, and reserved the right of crowning the nation's monarchs, reflecting the prestige of the area.

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The distinctive red clay pan tiles seen on many old buildings in Fife arrived as ballast on trading boats and replaced the previously thatched roofs.

In 1598, King James VI employed a group of 11 men from Fife, who became known as the Fife adventurers, to colonise the Isle of Lewis in an attempt to begin the "civilisation" and de-gaelicisation of the region.

Fife became a centre of heavy industry in the 19th century.

Postwar Fife saw the development of Scotland's second new town, Glenrothes.

From 1975 to 1996 Fife was a local government region, divided into three districts: Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and North-East Fife.

Fife is one of the six local authorities in the city region of Edinburgh and southeast Scotland.

Fife is represented by five constituency members of the Scottish Parliament and four members of the United Kingdom parliament who are sent to Holyrood and the British Parliament respectively.

Since the last Scottish election in 2012, Fife Council has been run as a minority by the Labour party, with a total of 35 seats, with support of Tory and independent councillors.

Fife is a peninsula in eastern Scotland bordered on the north by the Firth of Tay, on the east by the North Sea and by the Firth of Forth to the south.

Almost all road traffic into and out of Fife has to pass over one of four bridges, south on the Forth Road Bridge and Queensferry Crossing, west on the Kincardine Bridge or north-east via the Tay Road Bridge, the exception being traffic headed north on the M90.

The areas in the south and west of Fife, including the towns of Dunfermline, Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy and the Levenmouth region are lightly industrial and more densely populated.

The rest of Fife includes smaller towns such as Inverkeithing, Kincardine, Anstruther, Lochgelly, Burntisland, Leven, Newburgh, Tayport and Cupar, and villages such as Springfield, Kinglassie, Kinghorn, Elie, Auchtertool, Crossgates, Ballingry and Auchtermuchty.

Fife contains 4,961 listed buildings and 48 conservation areas.

Fife has a number of ecclesiastical sites of historical interest.

Fife has four football clubs that play in the Scottish Professional Football League: Dunfermline Athletic, East Fife, Kelty Hearts, and Raith Rovers ; Cowdenbeath played at this level between 1905 and 2022 but are now members of the Lowland Football League.

Fife Flyers are the UK's oldest ice hockey club and play in Britain's top flight, the Elite Ice Hockey League.

Fife has two competitive basketball teams; Dunfermline Reign, who play out of St Columba's High School in Dunfermline and compete across a number of national SBC competitions, and Fife Steel, a Kirkcaldy-based team, operating a number of age groups, with a Senior men's and an under 19's team currently playing in Division 3 of the Lothian Men's Basketball League.