Simon Taylor of the Aberdour Cultural Association went into the Primary School to tell stories of old Aberdour. The children made tapestry panels that will be displayed as part of a new Aberdour banner. The sixth is Legal Battles.
Who’s walked along the coastal path between Aberdour and Burntisland? Can you think of any bridges you have to cross?
It’s over the Starley Burn– the burn with the big waterfall right beside it.
Locals kept building wooden bridges over it, and Morton’s men kept pulling them down. Finally, some locals built a more substantial stone bridge over the burn.
It was over this bridge that a gentleman called Hugh Forfar crossed one morning on his way to visit friends in Aberdour. During the evening he returned along the same path to Burntisland. However, during the day Morton’s men had destroyed the stone bridge. Travelling through the woods in the dark Hugh Forfar did not see that the bridge had been removed. He tumbled down the burn. It’s very steep there so it is lucky he was not killed. But he was badly injured. Luckily, he did get better, but he was very angry, so he took the Earl of Morton to court and was given £101 in damages – that was a very large amount of money in those days, so it ended well for him and badly for the earl of Morton. You’ll all be glad to know that in the end the earl of Morton lost all his legal battles, and he had to allow people to get to the Silver Sands from Aberdour as well as from Burntisland.
Jesus had a lot of Legal Battles with lawyers of the day, often they were about helping others on the Sabbath. (Ed)