Lower Largo Travel Guide - Scotland

The shores of Largo Bay have been settled continuously for at least 500 years, with the fishing village of Lower Largo (or Seatown of Largo) achieving early renown as the birthplace of Alexander Selkirk, the man upon whom author Daniel Defoe would base his famous character Robinson Crusoe. Selkirk, born in Lower Largo in 1676, had in fact been marooned on the island of Juan Fernandez for four years.

Lower Largo is compact, its dense architecture harkening to past eras of immense prosperity as a centre of nets and knitwear manufacture, a steamboat hub, and a stop on the early Scottish railway completed in 1856. In 1978 large swaths of the East Neuk of Fife, including Lower Largo, were designated as conservation areas, restricting or altogether forbidding new constructions in an effort to preserve historic charm and character.

Lower Largo is not frozen in time, however – it has been transformed into a resort village, catering to tourists with an appreciation of traditional Scottish country life. Shuttle buses for sightseers from Edinburgh and Glasgow run hourly. The harbour at the Keil Burns river mouth is today populated with pleasure craft instead of fishing boats.

Notable sights include the four massive arches supporting the village's old viaduct, the Railway Inn, a converted grain warehouse now known as the Crusoe Hotel, and several miles of fine, sandy beach.