Kirkcaldy Through Time

Kirkcaldy, long known as the Lang Toun, is the biggest town in Fife. Situated on the north coast of the Firth of Forth, it began to develop as a trading port in the sixteenth century, developing further around salt, coal mining and nail making. However, it was the linoleum industry that had the biggest impact on Kirkcaldy; first brought to the town by Sir Michael Nairn in 1877, it was a major industry there until the mid-1960s. The birthplace of Adam Smith, the economist and author of The Wealth of Nations, and of influential architect Robert Adam, home of crime writer Val McDermid and constituency of Gordon Brown, Kirkcaldy is now a major service centre for the local area. In this book, Walter Burt takes a look at the history of the town through a collection of old images, with modern equivalents to show the change that has taken place.