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Tour of the Kingdom - 6 April 2014
Report by Tom Niven. Photos - Tom Niven & Sandy Stevenson.
The
weather was kind to us as some 36 cars assembled at Dobbies in
Dunfermline for the start of the Tour of the Kingdom. It was an
excellent turnout for the first event of the season over a new route.
There was an interesting collection of cars and it was good to see many familiar and some new faces
 Signing
on was hectic due mainly to the Clerk of the Course cutting his arrival
fine – i.e. he was late but the first car was waved off on time.
Jim Paterson had prepared an interesting and varied route before
departing to Australia and everyone enjoyed travelling over some new
roads. It was difficult to ascertain how many actually completed
the whole route – there appeared to be much meeting of cars going
in the opposite direction but this did not detract from the enjoyment.
 The
route took in some of the historic parts of the Kingdom of Fife.
Dunfermline was the ancient seat of the King's of Scotland, so a royal
connection there. Another as we passed alongside Loch Leven and the
island home to Lochleven Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots. was
imprisoned in1567. The route headed deep into Fife and the East
Neuk to Earlsferry named after the Earls of Fife who instituted a ferry
for the use of pilgrims en route to the shrine of Saint
Andrew. The ferry crossed the Firth of Forth to North Berwick, 7
miles away.
 After
passing through Pitenweem, Anstruther and Crail, each with a story told
in the roadbook the crews reached St. Andrews, passing the
Cathedral ruin. The university of St Andrews, is the third oldest
university in the English-speaking world, the oldest in Scotland and
one .of Britain's most prestigious. Can only go west now, as east is
the North Sea!
Reaching Tayport near Dundee the route
hugged the coast of the River Tay, heading toward Newburgh before
reaching Perth, and the lovely village of Scone where the finish at the
Wheel Inn (used on the 2013 International Autoecosse) hosted a jolly
gathering with much swapping of yarns and plans for the coming season.
 There were very few mechanical problems on the way. Hugh McKinnon had binding back brakes on his Jaguar XK120. Margaret and
Donald Campbell had starting problems with the Sunbeam but after Ranald
White came to their assistance with a huge booster starting pack they
were on their way back up north escorted by David Spence and Roddie
Main.They were last seen making steady progress at Daviot so we hope
they are home by now!
Thanks to Dobbies, The Wheel Inn and to everyone who took part.
Fred Douglas
1976 Triumph 2500 | 
Alex Ewart
2003 TVR Tuscan | 
Alex Sneddon
1998 Marcos Mantaray |
See the video by Sandy Stevenson at the Wheel Inn HERE
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Updated 30 April
2014
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