Fife Council have announced plans to resurface the footpath from Little Carron all the way through to Cockshaugh Park. Parts of the path which are particularly narrow will be widened and there may also be improvements to rubbish bins, benches and signs. The Lade Braes will continue to be dual-use for pedestrians and cyclists.
Fife Council have recently started work to remove the beech hedge and beech trees between the closed footpath and neighbouring properties at the open space near Law Mill. The beeches had been neglected for many years and not only overgrew the original footpath but were causing the path to break up. Unfortunately, the property owners now have some work to do on their fence as the hedge was supporting it!
Two large, ugly closure signs appeared back in March on the original lade footpath near Law Mill. While the signs declare the footpath to be closed, there is no physical barrier to using the path. We contacted Fife Council for details of the closure to find out if it was permanent or if there were works planned in the location. The council declined to comment so it’s possible that the signs are merely to avoid litigation or the requirement to repair the footpath.
Thanks go to Thelma Hardie for sending us this old photo of a waterfall on the Kinness Burn. After a bit of searching we managed to identify the location beside the Botanic Gardens near Cockshaugh Park. From the clothing of the two children it looks to be about 1960.
Thanks to the University of St Andrews Library we are now able to host images of the Lade Braes from their extensive photographic archive.
These photos were previously accessible from our site on the pages which they relate to. They are now part of our historic photos gallery.
Law Mill would still be a working mill in the photos of 1900. There are also two photos taken from almost identical spots (looking west towards Law Mill cottage) but 62 years apart.
