Kelty (Scottish Gaelic: Cailtidh) is a former coal mining village located in

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Lying in the heart of the old mining heartlands of Fife, it is situated on the

Kinross-shire The County of Kinross or Kinross-shire is a historic county and registration county in eastern Scotland, administered as part of Perth and Kinross since 1930. Surrounding its largest settlement and county town of Kinross, the county borders Per ...

boundary and has a population of around 6,000 residents. This was nearer to 9,000 when the coal mining industry was still operational in late 1970s and early 1980s.

Origins

The origin of the name of the village is somewhat obscure. It could come from the

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

''coillte'' or ''coilltean'' meaning 'wood' or 'woodland' or it could come from the Gaelic ''cailtidh'', a reduced form of the early Gaelic ''*caleto-dubron'', meaning 'hard water'. In either case, it was probably originally a

Pictish Pictish is the extinct language, extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited num ...

name that was later adapted to Gaelic. The town began around 1850 as a mining town linked to several coal mines in the area, mainly owned by the

Fife Coal Company The Fife Coal Company was formed in 1872 to acquire the small Beath and Blairadam Colliery with its pits in Kelty. Its head office was in Leven. In addition to coal, the company worked some ironstone. For the whole of its operating life, the co ...

and continued to expand with the increase of mines until 1930. Kelty is located next to the main

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

road, the

M90 motorway The M90 is a motorway in Scotland. It runs from Junction 1A of the M9 motorway, south of the Queensferry Crossing, to Perth. It is the northernmost motorway in the United Kingdom. The northern point goes to the western suburbs of Perth at ...

, and as a result of this has seen many houses built primarily for commuters to Edinburgh over the past five years. Kelty has two primary schools, St. Joseph's and Kelty Primary. After primary school, the majority of pupils go on to

Beath High School Beath High School is a non-denomational state secondary school in Cowdenbeath, Fife. The school is run by Fife Council and the current roll stands at around 1200 pupils aged from 11 to 18. It serves Cowdenbeath and Kelty and the villages of Cr ...

, a comprehensive school in

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath (; sco, Coudenbeith) is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 18 ...

, or the local Roman Catholic school, St Columba's High School in

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; sco, Dunfaurlin, gd, Dùn Phàrlain) is a city, parish and former Royal Burgh, in Fife, Scotland, on high ground from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. The city currently has an estimated population of 58,508. Accord ...

. Kelty also has a modern community centre, and a modern library. The local

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team is

Kelty Hearts Kelty Hearts Football Club is a football club based in the village of Kelty in Fife, Scotland. Formed in 1975 and nicknamed ''the Hearts'', ''the Maroon Machine'' and ''the Jambos'', they play their home games at New Central Park. Their home ...

. In 2022 they were promoted to League 1 for the first time as

League 2 The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

champions.

Church

Kelty was part of the parish of Beath (

) and had a

quoad sacra A ''quoad sacra'' parish is a parish of the Church of Scotland which does not represent a civil parish. That is, it had ecclesiastical functions but no local government functions. Since the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929, civil parishes have h ...

mission church erected in 1894. The mission was upgraded to a chapel in 1897, its minister being Rev George Hunter MA who went to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in 1903. He was replaced by Rev William Henderson Adam who went to

Calderbank Calderbank is a village outside the town of Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It lies west of the M73 motorway, M73, on the west bank of the North Calder Water. The village lies east of Glasgow city centre and ar ...

in 1919 and was replaced by Rev William Thomson. It was given status as a separate parish, disjoined from Cowdenbeath, in 1925.

War Memorial

The war memorial was erected in 1921 and was designed by sculptor

William Birnie Rhind William Birnie Rhind RSA (1853–1933) was a Scottish sculptor. Life Rhind was born in Edinburgh on 27 February 1853 as the first son of sculptor John Rhind (1828–1892), and his wife, Catherine Birnie. He was the elder brother of J. M ...

Notable people

Claire Baker Claire Josephine Baker (née Brennan; born 4 March 1971) is a Scottish Labour politician who has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Mid Scotland and Fife region since 2007. Early life and career Claire Baker was b ...

, MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife * Stephen Husband, professional footballer * Willie Penman, professional footballer *

Willie Rennie William Cowan Rennie (born 27 September 1967), commonly known as Willie Rennie, is a Scottish politician who served as the Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats from 2011 to 2021. He has served as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MS ...

, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats (2011–2021) * Alex Rowley, Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party (2015–17) * Robert Stewart, Draughts World Champion (1922-1933)

Sport

won Scottish League Two in 2022, having been promoted from the Lowland League in 2021.

Blairadam House

Blairadam House, just north of Kelty but on the west side of the M90, was the long-term home of the Adam family: William Adam,

Robert Adam Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his o ...

, John Adam,

William Adam of Blair Adam The Right Hon. William Adam of Blair Adam (2 August 175117 February 1839) was a Scottish advocate, barrister, politician and judge. He served as Solicitor General for Scotland (1802–1805) and as Lord Chief Commissioner of the Jury Court (181 ...

, Charles Adam etc.

References

External links

*
Kelty on Fife Council website

Towns in Fife Mining communities in Fife {{Fife-geo-stub