Seals at Seafield Tower – View of Inchkeith Island loop from Burntisland

Hiking trails & Routes

Fife

Burntisland

Seals at Seafield Tower – View of Inchkeith Island loop from Burntisland

Moderate

4.4

(5)

hikers

Seals at Seafield Tower – View of Inchkeith Island loop from Burntisland

04:47

18.0km

190m

Hiking

Moderate hike. Good fitness required. Easily walkable paths. The starting point of the route is accessible with public transport.

Last updated: August 13, 2026

Waypoints

Start point

Train Station

Get Directions

1.10 km

Burntisland Beach

Beach

5.57 km

Kinghorn, Kinghorn Loch and Grangehill

Highlight • Settlement

7.78 km

Seals at Seafield Tower

Highlight • Natural

Just after passing the tower, look out for seals along the shore. Watch and listen to them as you enjoy the view of the surrounding area. On a brighter day, you can just see Arthur’s Seat across the water.

Tip by

7.87 km

Seafield Tower

Highlight • Castle

The lands here at Seafield (as well as the lands at Markinch) were granted to Robert Moultrie by King James II in 1443 and the tower was in his family ownership until 1631. It was then sold to the Archbishop of Glasgow, James Law, before passing through a number of unknown owners. The last owners were the Methven family, whose Lord was reported to have left Seafield in 1715 to join the Jacobite arising, never to return, resulting in the tower being abandoned in 1733.
Seafield Tower, also known as the devil’s tower, is five stories high and was built using the local red sandstones. It would have had a vaulted storage area on the ground floor and great hall on the first floor and the upper floor level would have been for the Lord’s accommodation. The tower is protected by barnskin or curtain wall. Unfortunately, all has been lost due to the coast erosion- the significant northwest corner collapsed during the storm in 2013.
The 1744 plan of the tower shows ancillary buildings to the west of the tower, providing necessary support to the residents, including bakery, brewery and stables.

Tip by

8.01 km

View of Inchkeith Island

Highlight • Viewpoint

Inchkeith island viewing along the coastal path near Seafield tower, the island has been the refuge to many infectious diseases i.e. syphilis from 14th Century to 16th Century. The island is basically a cemetery island once you’re there, you may not leave the island alive, even Russian sailors were buried there in 1799 when they were quarantine there for infectious disease. The island was used for many various military activities but the most bizarre used of the island was the extraordinary experiment King James IV, he ordered that a dumb woman and two (2) infants to be transported there to ascertain what language the children would speak. Apparently, the children didn’t speak at all, some say that they speak the language of God, which is Hebrew, but of course, this is all speculation! The lighthouse here is run by the North Lighthouse Board which is now controlled from Edinburgh since 1958 and in 1986, the island was sold to Sir Tom Farmer, the founder of Kwik-Fit. If you’re interested to visit the island you need a permission. He lives in Barnton, Edinburgh.

Tip by

8.36 km

Fife Coastal Path

Highlight • Cycleway

Good path. Mix of trail and gravel with steps and rock gardens. Possibly not for beginners.

Tip by

8.52 km

Seafield Abandoned Dock and Piers

Highlight • Structure

In 1883, Seafield Dock and Railway Act, granted a company of shareholders permission to erect five acre dock enclosed by two piers here. Primarily, the dock intended to gain share of the growing export trade from the expanding Fife Coalfields and was to be joined to the main line at Auchtertool by an eight mile railway. It stopped for a while until 1888, work began again in 1889 and large quantity of wood was brought here for shuttering the concrete piers and navvies arrived in town expecting work. However, after part one of the dock was completed, the project was abandoned for good on the 25th September 1889, it’s not entirely clear the reason for the sudden halt of the project but it may have been related to the opening of the Number 1 dock in Methil in 1887- where it has more capacity and closer to the most productive parts of the coalfield. This photo was taken in 1905.

Tip by

9.43 km

Rock Formations with Evidence of Ancient Tropical Seas

Highlight (Segment) • Natural

This part of the coastal path towards Seafield tower where the formation of rocks, are created from the molten lava and underneath these rocks are the evidence of tropical seas teeming with corals at the time when this part of the world was near the equator about 325 million years ago. There are volcanoes spewing out molten lava around here, later earthquakes cracked the rocks to create faults which you can see preserve today. The area has been categorised to SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) is a formal conservation designation. Usually, it describes an area that's of interest to science due to the rare species of fauna or flora it contains - or even important geological or physiological features that may lie in its boundaries.

Tip by

13.4 km