This is the village of Ceres, which lies roughly three miles from Cupar and seven miles from St Andrews. It has been called the most attractive village in Scotland. I haven't seen all the villages in Scotland, but Ceres is certainly very pretty. It nestles in a dip in a small valley and spreads below you as you follow the road to the right cresting the hill from Cupar.
In days gone by the village boasted several mills and there was coal mining close by, but today it is a dormitory town for people who work in Cupar, St Andrews, Perth and Dundee.
Nowadays it boasts a few local shops such as Hand Made Home
Ceres Butchers
and Lunardi Gallery
Also Griselda Hill Pottery which makes the famous Wemyss Ware pottery
Hostelries in the town are the nineteenth-century Meldrums Hotel and the Ceres Inn which overlooks the Bow Butts, or village green.
Directly opposite the Ceres Inn , next to the antique shop, is a statue known locally as "The Toby Jug". It is believed to represent the Reverend Thomas Buchanan, who was the last church provost in 1578, and just uphill from the Toby Jug is Fife Folk Museum
Across the road from the Bow Butts is the Bishop's Bridge, so called because Archbishop Sharp used it regularly when going between Kennoway and St Andrews. He would have crossed this bridge on the 3rd May 1679 on his way to Magus Muir where he would be pulled from his coach and murdered in front of his daughter.
The Bow Butts has the name because that is where the youth of the town practised their archery skills in the 14th century.
The war memorial facing the road in front of the Bow Butts is not a memorial to the soldiers of World Wars One or Two, however. It is a memorial to the men of Ceres who marched away in 1314 to the Battle of Bannockburn, a battle which would shape how Scotland would be governed.
Most attractive village in Scotland? Why not come along to the Ceres Games on the last Saturday in June and decide for yourself?
