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5 Best Beaches In Kingdom of Fife
A big beach and a small beach are different products for a parent, and Fife's five split neatly between them. St Andrews West Sands is the big one: an enormous open sweep where a ten-year-old can run until they are tired out and a kite has room to work. Silversands Beach, Aberdour Silver Sands and Burntisland Beach are on the sheltered side of the county, smaller and more contained, which means you can see every child in your party without standing up. Leven Beach falls between the two. With an under-five, keeping everyone in view beats having room to roam.
Top beaches in Kingdom of Fife
Showing 1–5 of 5
BeachesSilversands Beach
BeachesSt Andrews West Sands
BeachesAberdour Silver Sands
BeachesLeven Beach
BeachesBurntisland Beach
Space is a benefit that arrives with age. The little bays are the right answer while your children are small, because a bounded beach with facilities close by removes most of the anxiety from the afternoon. Once everyone can swim and be trusted to stay in sight, the long open sands become the better day, and there is nothing on the sheltered coast that matches them for a fine, windy afternoon with older children.
Beaches in Kingdom of Fife: FAQs
Which of the five is best with a toddler?
One of the small sheltered ones — Aberdour Silver Sands, Silversands Beach or Burntisland Beach. The advantage is not the sand, which is decent everywhere here, but the shape: a contained bay lets you keep your eyes on a two-year-old while also making a sandwich, and it puts the car, the toilets and the way home close at hand. On a very large beach the same child is a small dot fifty yards away and you spend the afternoon walking after them rather than sitting down.
Is the big beach worth the trip with older children?
Yes, and it is one of the few places where sheer scale is the attraction. St Andrews West Sands gives a nine-year-old room to sprint, cycle or fly something without meeting anyone, and it holds a group of teenagers for an afternoon in a way a small bay does not. Come prepared for wind, because an open east-coast beach is exposed by definition, and that is precisely what makes it good for kites and uncomfortable for a baby.
How cold is the water going to be?
Cold enough that you should plan around it rather than hope. Children go in regardless of temperature and stay in far longer than any adult would, so the useful preparation is towels, a change of clothes for everyone and something warm to put on straight afterwards. Under-fives lose heat quickly and need pulling out before they ask, which is the one piece of advice worth carrying to any Scottish shore with small children.
Can these beaches fill a whole day?
The larger one can, particularly if there are bikes or a ball involved. The smaller bays are better treated as half a day joined to something else, which suits families with young children anyway, since three hours is usually the ceiling before somebody needs a nap. All five are recorded as outdoor with no indoor space at all, so decide in advance where you retreat to if the wind gets up, especially with a baby along.