Saint Margaret of Scotland, star of 11th century reality show The Only Way is Wessex established the place as a ferry port for pilgrims on their way to St Andrews. I don't think the Ferry runs anymore, but it still feels connected to Fife. The Scotmid sells the Dunfermline local paper.
Despite the fact that our time here over the winter has been dominated by Hurricane Bawbag and other extreme weather, I have warmed to the place. We have a lot more room for Artemis to grow into, a garden for her to run about in, and more varied places to walk the dog. The local boozer The Ferry Tap is a great small town pub with basic food and a guest ale, and it shows the football. The commute hasn't been as bad as we feared, although Donna's 6.20am bus on school days is pretty bleak.
One things that has struck me on moving here from Leith is how far behind it is as a community. This may sound overly judgemental, but I just wanted to point out some observations of things that remind me of the Leith I moved to in 1999.
1. Dog Shit. Leith Links, when I first got a dog, was a treacherous mire of scattered poo. Over the last seven or eight years a real dog walking community grew up in and around Leith Links and this provided genuine peer support and pressure on others to clear up after their dog. It has got to the stage where it has become relatively rare to find muck all over your shoe when you get back to the house. (More likely you'll find broken bits of Stella bottle in your dog's paw..)
The Ferry, it seems, has yet to grasp this most basic tenets of community living. Every spare bit of grass is littered with shit, including the playpark and playing field opposite where I live. It's even more infuriating when you have a two year old who loves to run about and go to the swings.2. Dangerous driving. Leith is still pretty bad for speeding and running lights, especially by those cyclists resplendent in reflective gear who think that their 'green credentials' excuse them from cycling at 20mph along a pedestrain walkway. Queensferry however, takes road safety back to 1999. People haven't yet found their indicators, and the law about using your mobile phone whilst driving doesn't seemed to have reached the town.
3. Fly tipping. There is an ex-railway path that goes from Leith academy to Seafield. It was common to find whole binbags of dirty nappies along this path, along with stolen bicycles, broken bottles, mattresses and the like. Those people, it seems, now dump things in areas of green space in Queensferry. I really can't understand this whatsoever. In the 21st century there is more awareness than ever about the importance of the environment, locally and globally. They even have the luxury of kerbside recycling in the town.
4. Connectivity. More time travel here: Fibre optic cable hasn't yet reached this district of Edinburgh, and neither of us can use our mobile phones in the house.
I'm sure I'll be accused of negative nimby-ism here, but we have no regrets. The view of the bridges, the garden, the lovely high street, the pleasant and approachable neighbours all set it apart from our previous area. Most of all, though, we needed the SPACE.









