Markinch Railway.

We were in for the second day of Summer today so we headed off into town. Dot was hoping to get a haircut but one salon was closed the other fully booked. Having no success in this matter we decided just to take a walk in a different direction to where we had been yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Markers on an ex railway branch line which is now a cycle/walkway.

Turning into one street we were confronted by a huge factory which gave the appearance of being empty and desolate. There were no indications as to what had been produced here or the name of a company but it would have been a big employer of the district. A bit of research shows that the area had mined coal until it ran out, involved in the woollen industry and had several paper mills some of which still exist.

Mainline viaduct just outside Markinch Station.

Another piece of railway history in Markinch. This was a level crossing to a paper mill. The town of Glenrothes didn't exist then.

Further along we found a cycleway which I guessed had been an old railway branch line which turns out to be the Markinch to Leslie Railway. The main line from Edinburgh to Dundee runs across a viaduct about 1 mile away and the branch line would have branched off this. We followed this path which split two ways. One path way was across another viaduct and the other went off in a different direction, this appears to have been Auchmuty Junction. We followed the former which lead us to a tunnel under the roadway, through a park back to a suburban street. Here we turned right which we hoped would take us back to town. A short way up the road we found what I suspect was the other cycleway and running across the road were the old railway tracks and two gate posts of an old level crossing still in situ. Eventually this led us back up onto the A92. We had no choice but to follow this road until we reached the roundabout where we turned off towards the camp yesterday. We eventually found a track through some woodlands where horse and pony riders go riding away from the traffic. This bought us out at the gateway to the campsite so we had walked in a very large circle right around the town.

A rather tight curved tunnel on the old railway line at Markinch.

On our travels lately we have spotted a Weasel running across a road as fast as his little legs would carry him, an owl sitting on a pile of gravel (until we stopped to photograph him, he must have seen me and scarpered) a Buzzard sitting on a fence post watching the traffic go by, a Tree Creeper on a tree opposite our camp site and some birds that looked like Sparrows except they had a white breast. I have not been able to identify them with our bird ID book.

An old church in Markinch now converted to 4 apartments.

This was the 2nd church in Markinch converted into 8 apartments.

The remaining church in Markinch.