Midsummer Walk

On the 19th of June nearly 50 members and friends set off on this

 year's midsummer walk to explore the village of Kinnesswood in the

 company of the Civic Trust Chairman David Munro.

The village is much older then it looks and although houses have been

 of stone for only 250 years, the layout of the settlement and its

 surrounding fields still offer clues to its long history as a

 traditional Scottish fermtoun. The curve of the main street with its

 apex at the Town Burn tells you it is not a typical grid-plan village

 of the 18th or 19th centuries, a fact confirmed by the concentration

 of old buildings that follow the burn up the hillside. Apart from

 being stretched along the main road, probably in the 18th century,

 the shape of the village remained much the same for many centuries.

 It was only with the opening of the Forth Bridge and the M90 Motorway

 that Kinnesswood changed from being a modern commuter dormitory

 village.

A visit to the Michael Bruce Cottage Museum gave people the chance to

 see old maps and photos of the village before walking up The Cobbles

 past the loomshops, byres and wash houses. From vantage points on the

 hill overlooking the village the party was introduced to natural

 features such as the Fair Steps and the 'howes' and 'drums' above

 Whitcraigs and the Golf Course.