St Monan's Windmill

With my good friend Bert, we have brought Jess & Molly for a walk to the St Monan's windmill. The big photo shows them all sharing a treat.

Below the windmill is a disused tidal swimming-pool. Molly, of course, is keen to go for a dip - Jess is equally sure that she does not want to go in!

I also caught a shot of Molly enjoying herself running through the saltpans.

Hundreds of walkers take the Fife Coastal Path each year, and most probably stop to admire this windmill. How many passers-by wonder about these, obviously artificial, undulations? Were they a training ground for soldiers off to the trenches of the First World War? The remains of a crazy-golf course? Neither of these - this is what is left of a once-thriving industry: salt-panning. The windmill pumped the water, locally-mined coal dried out the pans, locally built ships carried the salt to all parts of Europe. By the time the industry became unprofitable in the 1820's, it had been going for nearly 200 years.

When the Proclaimers sang Bathgate no more, Linwood no more, Methil no more, Lochaber no more, they were referring to 20th century industries which had come and gone. If they had been writing for previous generations, they might have put St Monan's on the list.