Welcome to the Tayport Heritage Trail

The complete 24 panel trail is a 4-mile/6.5km circular route around the town, with various shorter linking options. The story is outlined by selected references to various historical periods.

The Early Years (Prior to 1770)
The Agricultural Improvement/Pre-Railway Period (1770 – 1848)
The Railway Period (1848 – 1966)
The Post Railway Period following the opening of the Tay Road Bridge (1966 onwards)

The North Fife Coastal Location continues to define both the identity and sense of community for the feuars and visitors alike. The geography and landscape have encouraged both habitation and travellers from early times. The rocky high part of the parish, in the area of the Hermit’s Cave & Archbishop Sharp’s Quarry, extends down to the rocky shoreline at the west common and provided access for the early ferry crossings. The sandy nature of the flat eastern areas of land incorporates the sandy beaches of Tentsmuir and the scaups of the tidal mudflats.  The Muirs area between Tayport and Leuchars would now be completely unrecognisable to the Post-Glacial inhabitants of the hunter-gatherer and fishing Mesolithic settlement areas, on their small tidal islands at Morton Farm from 6000 BC. (Prehistoric Morton, Reg Candow 1989)   www.pastmap.org.uk

Following the successful establishment of their Railway Harbour and Ferry crossing service, the influence of the  railway company on the affairs of the village was significant.  On Saturday the 29th March 1851, the Edinburgh, Perth & Dundee Railway ordinary half-yearly meeting agreed to substitute  “for the rather cumbrous designation of Ferry-Port-on-Craig, the more intelligible one of Tayport.” 

The town became known as Tayport and was established as a Police Burgh in 1887, whilst the Parish remained as Ferry-Port-on-Craig until 1994.