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 ...

, Scotland, situated on

Largo Bay Largo Bay is a bay on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth, on the coast of Fife, Scotland. Lower Largo is a village right on the bay, with small harbour. Upper Largo is adjacent, just inland and above the bay and at the foot of Largo Law '' ...

along the north side of the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meanin ...

. It is east of, and contiguous with, Lundin Links. 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 The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon ( la, Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici), also known as the Order of Solomon's Temple, the Knights Templar, or simply the Templars, was a Catholic military order, o ...

holding lands to the east of the town in the 12th century. It was made a "

burgh A burgh is an autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland and Northern England, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. ...

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 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 ...

, who provided inspiration for Daniel Defoe'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 tr ...

''. 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 A castaway is a person who is cast adrift or ashore. While the situation usually happens after a shipwreck, some people voluntarily stay behind on a deserted island, either to evade captors or the world in general. A person may also be left a ...

. 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 Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

. The Fife Coast Railway 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 railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the M ...

(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 A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide va ...

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 Goth ...

.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 so ...

, 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