The Location

The Hill of Tarvit Estate is in Fife, near Cupar

What's there

A National Trust country house and estate. There are several short walks and attractive gardens in the estate, and dogs are permitted everywhere on a leash. There is a £.2 parking charge for the car park, but admission to the grounds is free. There is also a cafe on site.
The walk as described is a longer walk round the estate boundary. It involves some walking on the edge of fields, and down a farm road, so you might feel that the shorter walks near the house are more appropriate.

How to get there

For SatNav, the post code is KY15 5PB.
Heading north out of Glenrothes on the A92, you come to a dual carriageway, there is a roundabout at the end of this dual carriageway. Turn right here on the A914, signposed Cupar, St. Andrews. Follow this road almost into Cupar, where you will see a sign pointing to a sharp right turn for the Hill of Tarvit house. The house is just over a mile down this road, on your left.

The Walk

You can see a map of the route here.
Take the path from the car park that heads into the woods to the left of the house. As you leave the wood, you will see the monument at the top of the Hill of Tarvit in front of you.

Image copyright Kevin Rae and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Follow the path to the top of the hill. Turn right at the summit then follow the path, through a wood, then along between two woods until you come to a field. At this point, you can turn right and follow a path down through the woods and back to the house and gardens. However if you want a longer walk, follow the field edge by a fence, until you reach a farm roadway. Follow this farm roadway down to the road from Bridgend.

When you reach the road, all maps clearly show a pathway running behind the hedge, though is is not obvious when you get there. Walk alomg the edge of the field until you reach the woods by the golf course. Here you will find a path running through the woods, which crosses the rear entrance to the house. Some people park by the gates here to avoid the car park charge. The path leaves the wood then runs by the golf course for a short distance before entering another small wood. Take the right hand path at the entrance to the wood, and walk up past the 'doocot', then keep right and follow the pathway up to the entrance road to the house. Turn right and it is a short walk back to the car park.

The Hill of Tarvit estate

History

The top of Tarvit Hill was excavated in the 1940s, and the diggers found the remains of an Iron Age circular wooden house, about 2,000 years old.
The doocot was constructed in the 1700s, as part of the estate of Weymiss Hall, built on the site of an earlier fortified tower house.
The Estate was bought out at the beginning of the 20th century by Frederick Sharp, who was a wealthy jute mill owner from Dundee. He chose the hill of Tarvit as it had easy transport links to his businesses at Dundee, but was also handy for St. Andrews, where he was a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. He had the house rebuilt as it is today, and left it to his son Hugh. However, Hugh tragically died young in a railway accident and the house was passed to the care of the National Trust.

Facilities on this Walk

Cafe nearby

Walks Near Here

Tap or Click on the Icon to see a picture of each walk. Click below the picture to visit the walk page.

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