The River Leven Valley from Windygates to Levenmouth.
Some evidence of Bronze Age settlements along the banks of the Leven exists. Aerial photographs show remains of ring ditches at Ashgrove and on the north bank of the river, near the United Distillers complex. As well as the remains of the Bronze Age burial site at Ashgrove, there are references to a souterrain having been discovered at Pirnie (Ashgrove) in the mid 19th century. During the construction of the housing scheme at Methilmill the top half of a stone quern of medieval date was discovered.
Records would suggest that there was a small religious settlement on the site of the present Methilmill cemetery, possibly a culdee settlement, during the 12th century. A church stood on this site for several centuries until it fell into ruin towards the end of the last century and was replaced by the first Methil Parish church built in Lower Methil. The small churchyard can still be seen - part of the much larger and newer Methilmill cemetery - with headstones dating from as early as the late 18th century.
Further up the river stood the tiny village of Methilmill. It sat in the area between the water and what is now Poplar Road, Methil. There are no remains of the village today This stretch of the River Leven lies between two estates. On the west is the Wemyss Estate, owned by the Wemyss family, and on the east bank lies the Durie estate, owed by the Durie then Gilmour family. Both of these estates are very old, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries respectively.
Until the late 19th. century, one of the principal populated areas of this stretch
of the river was at Kirkland, in the area next to the steel works, where over
800 people lived and worked. There are virtually no remains of the village or
the mansion, which once stood amongst the trees and was the home of the Peter
family, owners of the spinning mill that pre-dated the steelworks.
Industry
Milling, mining and fishing have always been the most prominent industries on
this stretch of the river.
Mining
Records show that coal was mined from the banks of the river from as early as
1611 and probably much earlier. At Kirkland, several great water powered engines
were employed in pumping water from the pit back into the river. On the other
side of the river there were several small pits in the Durie estate. A lade
was dug in 18th century bringing water from Burnmill dam past the pit at Kirkland,
to power the water engines. It was later used to supply water to the spinning
mill, cyanide plant and steelworks, all of which occupied the site at various
times over the last two centuries. The lade has since been drained but the path
which it took is clearly visible today.
Fishing
Until the early 19th century, salmon fishing played an important part in the
local economy. The fish were caught at the mouth of the river Leven then shipped
to Perth or Newburgh for export to England. Pollution from the growing number
of mills on the river led to the rapid decline of the salmon population.
Spinning Mills
In 1785 the
engines at the Kirkland pit gave way. Rather than repair them it was decided
that the site should be levelled and a spinning mill erected there. A Dundee
Spinning Company, Messrs. Neilson & Co. carried out the construction and operation
of the mill. Flax was mainly imported from Russia to the harbour at Methil for
use in the mill. All of the power for the handlooms in the mill came from the
river Leven. The mill produced damask, cotton, linen thread and sail cloth.
In 1810 the mill became the first in Scotland to be lit by gas. By 1836 the
mill employed well over 600 people in the preparation, spinning, bleaching and
weaving processes. Foreign competition in the 1880s led to the steady decline
of the spinning works at Kirkland. In 1889 the mill finally closed.
Other Industries
In 1896 the site of the former spinning mill was bought and converted into -
of all things - a cyanide factory. Cyanide is an important part of the chemical
process used to extract gold from the ore. However, most of the world's gold
was being mined in South Africa and the Kirkland plant started operation in
the same year as the outbreak of the Boer war. Exports and prices dropped considerably,
leading to the speedy closure of the plant.
Cameronbrig
Before the distillery was established, the site had been used for grain milling
for several centuries. In 1822 John Haig visited the site and saw that the quality
of water and the proximity of grain farms and mills made the location ideal
for whisky manufacture. Field Marshall Alexander Douglas Haig, Commander-in-Chief
of British forces during WW1, was part of the Haig family and almost certainly
spent some of his childhood at Cameron House. In 1877 the distillery was taken
over by the Distillers Company in whose hands it remained until 1986 when it
was acquired by United Distillers. No whisky is made there today, only raw mash
which is used in the blending process.
Creosote Works
When the creosote works first opened in 1887 it was sited on the Methil side
of the river, near Methil docks. As the docks became busier and grew the creosote
works moved across the river to their present site. Today they specialise, as
they have always done, in the treatment of telephone poles.
Paper
Most of the Leven's paper
mills are further upstream towards Leslie and Markinch. However, the town of
Leven had its own paper mill, the Millfield paper mill, which was established
in 1880. The mill is now closed.
Railway
Around 1861 a mineral line was constructed from Cameronbridge (connecting with
the Thornton Leven line) to Methil docks. At Kirkland extensive marshalling
yards were constructed to help control the flow of railway traffic to Methil
docks. The line is still in use today carrying wagons full of coal for use at
Methil power station. The earliest remains of the once busy line is a handsome,
but dilapidated Victorian footbridge crossing the line at the old path to Mountfleurie.
Sawmills
Donaldsons have had a sawmill on the river Leven since 1890. They set up near
the newly built Methil docks to cut distribution costs, both in importing timber
and exporting it to the expanding Fife Coal fields. Since then they have expanded
the scale of the sawmill at Elm Park and have built a large roof truss plant
at Muiredge in Buckhaven. A venture into the DIY market saw the setting up of
a retail complex at Riverside Road Leven. The Riverside Road site was sold to
developers in the 1990's and now is a Sainsburies food Store, the DIY department
moving to Glenrothes.
Environment Pollution
The increasing number of mills which set up along the banks of the Leven during
the latter part of the 18th and most of the 19th centuries led to a steady increase
in the amount of pollution in the river. In 1874, the manager at Cameronbrig
was recorded as saying the smell from the river was so bad during the summer
that the whole distillery might have to close during the hottest months. The
main pollutants were caustic lye from the bleaching agents used by the spinning
mills and the water used to boil the rags in preparation for their being pulped
to make paper. Added to this was the sludge from the distillery at Cameronbrig,
waste from the steelworks at Kirkland and the considerable amount of sewage
from the growing villages and towns which grew upon the banks of the river and
its tributaries.
By the end of the 19th century the water had become so polluted that it was deemed unusable by the mills around Leven and Kennoway. Despite efforts by the factories on the river to cut the waste being produced, by 1930 the River Leven and the River Ore were the most polluted rivers in Scotland. In 1956 a sewage pipe - known locally as the 'black pipe' - was built running parallel to the river carrying waste from the towns and villages upstream and discharging out to sea at Leven. This, coupled with modernisation of the factories on the river has considerably reduced the pollution levels in the river. However, the unauthorised dumping of domestic and - occasionally - industrial waste along the banks of the river has become a problem, despite the creation of a community-recycling centre at Kirkland and large scale landscaping projects.
Landmarks
The large mound which sits between the river and the Windygates-Kennoway road
is known as Maiden Castle. Archaeological research shows that it was once the
site of a 12th century motte and bailey castle. It is believed locally that
Maiden Hill may have been an early Iron Age fort although no archaeological
evidence of this exists. However, the area and farm on the opposite side of
the river is known as Dunniface - cautiously translated as Fort of the Great
Worm.
Bridges
Today there are many foot, road and rail bridges crossing the River Leven. The
oldest is Cameron Brig. This was once part of the main Kirkcaldy - Cupar road
which ran through the famous staging post at Cupar. Until the beginning of the19tht
century, Cameron Brig was also the only bridge across the river between there
and the mouth of the river. In 1821 a chain suspension bridge was built for
pedestrian traffic across the river at Leven on the site of an old ferry way
and ford. In 1840 it was replaced by a three-arched stone bridge with a toll
taken for crossing the bridge of one halfpenny (or a bawbee as they were known)
- hence the name Bawbee Brig. It is interesting to note that the toll keeper
- Davie Finlay - was the man once employed to ferry passengers across the river
in pre-bridge days. The present single-span bridge replaced the old stone bridge
in 1957. The footbridge at the bottom of Steelworks Brae was actually made from
the railway lines which once connected the steel works to the line across the
river. Other bridges that crossed the river along this short stretch include
the Iron Brig (road) and a rail bridge to Elm Park saw mill (dismantled), at
Donaldsons sawmills, a railway bridge at Methil Power station and a former railway
bridge at the steelworks, now used by lorries delivering to the creosote works.
A footbridge on the path to Kennoway. Two road bridges at Cameron Bridge and
a dismantled rail bridge that once carried the mineral railway to Methil.