Village of Culross

Culross, Scotland

I’ve always been fascinated by buildings and towns that become “stuck in time.” Usually, there are three occurrences that happen in these places. First, the town was once prosperous, which allowed it to build impressive structures. Second, some major economic setback hit the town and kept it from modernizing. Finally, people made a concerted effort to preserve everything as is because they realized it was financially better to keep the town the same, rather than to modernize. Culross, Scotland, falls into all three categories of “stuck in time.”

Culross was a Royal Burgh of Fife. That status, plus its location on the Firth of Forth, gave the town access to foreign trade. Culross was very successful in the trading of coal and salt, and the village prospered. However, the port started to decline, the railroad cut the town off from the sea, and the village became a ghost town. During this ghost-town phase, Culross residents began protecting the town through the National Trust for Scotland. Today, the Trust has preserved 27 homes in the village.

Today, Culross is world-famous for serving as a filming location for the TV show Outlander, appearing as the fictional village of Cranesmuir. Locations around Culross appear in multiple seasons of the show. The real-life structures provide better believability at a lower cost than a studio. Culross uses its fame to help market the town.

When visiting the village, free east and west car parks are available. It is advantageous to park in one or the other and then take the short walk into town. The streets were built for horses and carriages, and driving larger cars on them seemed challenging. The village has a steep climb uphill, so we did not walk further uphill than the mercat cross. We were also visiting after hours, so we didn’t climb to the Abbey or pay admission to tour Culross Palace. The village also has only one pub, the Red Lion Inn, housed in a building constructed in the 16th-17th centuries. We passed on eating here because we needed to eat down some of the food we brought from our Airbnb before leaving for northern Scotland. The town is also connected by the Fife Coastal Trail, a 116-mile trail that runs around the Fife Peninsula.

It’s charming to visit places that give us a living glimpse into the past. I was going to link to some previous posts about buildings or settlements from a different time that still meet people’s needs today. I quickly realized these charming places pop up as a theme often in my adventures. Culross inspired me to create a page titled “Living History,” which includes links to posts about historic places built in a different time or for a different purpose but still used today. These places are not just set aside as museums; people still live in them, use them, and they remain part of modern society, even if they have an aesthetic from a different time period.