Lower Largo or Seatown of Largo is a village 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, situated on Largo Bay along the north side of the Firth of Forth. It is east of, and contiguous with,

Lundin Links Lundin Links is a small village in the parish of Largo on the south coast of Fife in eastern central Scotland. The village was largely built in the 19th century to accommodate tourists visiting the village of Lower Largo. Lundin Links is conti ...

. Largo is an ancient fishing village in the parish of Largo. An excavated late 5th century cemetery points to an early settlement of the site, and there are records of the

Knights Templar , colors = White mantle with a red cross , colors_label = Attire , march = , mascot = Two knights riding a single horse , equipment ...

holding lands to the east of the town in the 12th century. It was made a " burgh of barony" by Sir Andrew Wood in 1513. This meant it had the right to erect a mercat cross and hold weekly markets, but not the extensive trading rights of a

royal burgh A royal burgh () was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished by law in 1975, the term is still used by many former royal burghs. Most royal burghs were either created by ...

. In 1654, Dutch cartographer

Joan Blaeu Joan Blaeu (; 23 September 1596 – 21 December 1673) was a Dutch cartographer born in Alkmaar, the son of cartographer Willem Blaeu. Life In 1620, Blaeu became a doctor of law but he joined the work of his father. In 1635, they publish ...

mentions Largo as "Largow burne-mouth" in his ''Nova Fifae Descriptio''. Lower Largo is famous as the 1676 birthplace of

Alexander Selkirk Alexander Selkirk (167613 December 1721) was a Scottish privateer and Royal Navy officer who spent four years and four months as a castaway (1704–1709) after being marooned by his captain, initially at his request, on an uninhabited island i ...

, who provided inspiration for

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...

's ''

Robinson Crusoe ''Robinson Crusoe'' () is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a tra ...

''. The house that now stands at his birthplace on 99-105 Main Street features a life-sized statue of Selkirk wearing self-made goatskin clothes, scanning the horizon. A signpost at the harbour points to

Juan Fernández Islands The Juan Fernández Islands ( es, Archipiélago Juan Fernández) are a sparsely inhabited series of islands in the South Pacific Ocean reliant on tourism and fishing. Situated off the coast of Chile, they are composed of three main volcanic i ...

, some 7,500 miles distant, where Selkirk lived for more than four years as a castaway. The arrival of the railway in 1857 brought many tourists to Lower Largo's sandy beach. The village has retained many historic buildings from the 17th to 19th century, and in 1978 it was designated as a conservation area. The

Fife Coast Railway The Fife Coast Railway was a railway line running round the southern and eastern part of the county of Fife, in Scotland. It was built in stages by four railway companies: * the Leven Railway opened the section from a junction at Thornton on ...

line through Lower Largo was closed in 1965 as part of the restructuring programme of British railways known as the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised British Rail, railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Develop ...

(overseen by

Richard Beeching Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching (21 April 1913 – 23 March 1985), commonly known as Dr Beeching, was a physicist and engineer who for a short but very notable time was chairman of British Railways. He became a household name in Britain in the e ...

), and though it has been disused since then the viaduct that dominates the village remains an important local landmark. The war memorial in Lower Largo was designed by Sir

Robert Lorimer Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer, KBE (4 November 1864 – 13 September 1929) was a prolific Scottish architect and furniture designer noted for his sensitive restorations of historic houses and castles, for new work in Scots Baronial and Got ...

.Dictionary of Scottish Architects: Robert Lorimer

Other notable residents

James Clunie James Clunie (20 March 1889 – 25 February 1974) was a British Labour Party politician. Born in Lower Largo, Clunie worked as a house painter and decorator. He joined the Scottish Painters' Society, serving on its executive, and also came to ...

, British Labour Party politician * Rev Joseph Taylor Goodsir

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

, theological author, born in Lower Largo and later its minister

References

External links

*
The Largo TrustLower Largo on FifeDirectLargo Arts Week - arts festival taking place in the village starting in 2019
Villages in Fife Tourist attractions in Fife Levenmouth {{Fife-geo-stub