Dalgety Bay

Dalgety Bay () is a coastal town and parish in Fife, Scotland. According to Fife Council, the town is home to , making this the eighth-largest place in Fife. The civil parish has a population of 10,777 (in 2011).Census of Scotland 2011, Table KS101SC – Usually Resident Population, publ. by National Records of Scotland. Web site http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/ retrieved March 2016. See "Standard Outputs", Table KS101SC, Area type: Civil Parish 1930

The bay was named after the original village of Dalgety, but the ruins of the 12th century St Bridget's Kirk are all that now mark the site. The new town, of which building started in 1965, takes its name from the main bay it adjoins, but the town stretches over many bays and coves including Donibristle Bay and St David's Bay. The root of the place-name Dalgety is the Scottish Gaelic word ''dealg'', 'thorn', and the full name originally meant 'the place of the thornbushes.

Dalgety Bay is a commuter town of Edinburgh. While the architecture of the town reflects construction by volume housebuilders, the town is a regular winner of the Best Kept Small Town title.

A series of radioactive objects have been found on the shoreline of Dalgety Bay since the 1990s. The objects come from an eroded landfill that contains debris from Second World War aircraft that originally had radium dials. In 2013, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency found that the Ministry of Defence was solely responsible for the contamination.

Dalgety Bay contains
Listed Buildings
or structures.

History

Dalgety Bay began as the village of Dalgety, which was built on the site of the 12th century St Bridget's Kirk. The land surrounding the town was part of the estate owned by the Earls of Moray who built Donibristle House as their residence. In 1592 James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray was murdered on the seashore near Donibristle by his rival George Gordon, Earl of Huntly, which is remembered in the popular ballad The Bonnie Earl O' Moray. Towards the end of the 18th century, the village was destroyed by order of the Earls of Moray.Omand ''The Fife Book'' p.176. and the inhabitants dispersed. During the First World War Morton Gray Stuart, 17th Earl of Moray donated a portion of his land to the Crown, which built an airfield there in 1917 as a base for the Royal Naval Air Service. The town also sent 30 men into the First World War, with only eight returning unharmed. The Royal Naval Air Service improved and expanded the aerodrome during the Second World War as HMS ''Merlin'', an air station, and constructed an extensive aircraft maintenance facility there.

Construction of the modern town of Dalgety Bay as Scotland's first "enterprise town" began around 1965 on the site of RNAS Donibristle and much of the remaining ground of the Earls of Moray family seat, Donibristle House.Omand ''The Fife Book'' p.90. The town stretches across several bays and coves of the northern coast of the Firth of Forth including Donibristle Bay and St David's Bay.

Education

There are two primary schools in Dalgety Bay: Dalgety Bay Primary School and Donibristle Primary School. Dalgety Bay sits within the catchment area for Inverkeithing High School.

Radioactive waste

A series of radioactive objects have been found off the shoreline of Dalgety Bay since the 1990s. One found in 2011 measured 10 MBq. The objects are believed to come from an eroded landfill that contains debris from Second World War aircraft that originally had radium dials.Calire Smith, Scotsman, 16 October 2011
On 25 April 2012, the MoD and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency agreed a joint survey of the problem. Since 1990, more than 2,500 radioactive hotspots have been found on the Dalgety Bay foreshore, one-third of them since September 2011. As of 2012, the Ministry of Defence was conducting a 12-month investigation of the contamination to try to avoid Dalgety Bay "becoming the first place in the UK to be legally designated as radioactive contaminated land". In 2013, SEPA concluded that the MoD was solely responsible for the contamination. In early 2014 the MoD made four proposals regarding how to deal with the contamination, ranging from erecting fences to keep the public out, to sealing it in with concrete.

Twin towns – sister cities

* Ócsa, Hungary

References

External links

Dalgety Bay on FifeDirect

Dalgety Bay and Hillend community website


- includes maps and aerial photographs

Dalgety Bay Weather Station

Fife Place-name Data :: Dalgety



Radioactive contamination

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Towns in Fife
Parishes in Fife
Populated coastal places in Scotland