Burntisland Docks

Image: © kim traynor Taken: 20 Apr 2011

The following extract from a survey of Scotland's seaports by one of Cromwell's officials suggests that there was little trade on this coast to generate customs revenue before the Union. "The next head port [after Alloa] is Brunt Island, lying opposite to Leith, on the north side of the Firth, whose districts reach from Innerkeithen all along the shore of the county of Fife, unto the banks of the River Tay. The trade of these parts inwards, is from Norway, the East country [Baltic], and sometimes from France with wines, and outwards with coal and salt, at all times very small, and worth little. For, although this be the bounds of one of the best and richest counties of Scotland, yet the goddness and riches of the country, arising more from the goodness and fertility of the soil and lands than any traffic, hath made it the residence and seat of many of the gentry of that nation, who have wholly driven out all but their tenants and peasants even to the shore side. There is one collector and five officers constantly attending in this port, and members thereof, which are on the west of Brunt Island, Innerkeithen; on the east Abirdore, Kinghorne, Kircaldy, Disert, Wems, Leven, Ely, St. Minas, Petten-Weym, Ainster, Craill, St. Androes, and South-ferry; all pitiful small towns on the coast, inhabited by sea-men, colliers, salt-makers, and such like people, except St. Androes, which (if I mistake not) is a burgh town." -- Report by Thomas Tucker upon the Settlement of the Revenues of Excise and Customs in Scotland, AD MDCLVI (1656)

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