Cupar: Fife's County Town, Hill of Tarvit and Getting There from St Andrews

Cupar is a market town of 8,817 people at the 2022 census, inland between Dundee and Glenrothes and the ninth-most-populous settlement in Fife. It is a former royal burgh and the historic county town, although the council now sits at Glenrothes. It is the trip out of St Andrews that has nothing to do with the sea.

You go for a town that ran a county’s business and still carries the buildings for the job: a mercat cross of 1683 where two streets meet, county buildings modelled on Edinburgh’s New Town, a church tower of 1415. South of it sit the two places that collect most of the area’s visitor reviews — a mansion open by guided tour and a fruit farm with a maze.

The straight-line distance from St Andrews is 13.4 km.

The mercat cross, the twisted spire and the county buildings

The historic centre is the junction of the Bonnygate and the Crossgate, where the mercat cross stands, its original shaft supported by a unicorn and dating from 1683. East of it runs St Catherine Street, with Robert Hutchison’s burgh chambers of 1815–17 and county buildings of 1812–17. The county buildings are unique in Fife as the only example replicating the style of Edinburgh’s New Town, and they still work for a living as the headquarters of Fife Council’s east region.

Two more buildings reward a walk. Preston Lodge on the Bonnygate, built in 1623 by the Laird of Airdrie, is the town’s second-oldest. At the corner of the Crossgate, Duncan’s Institute of 1870–71 was built by John Milne as a mechanics’ institute for the “working classes of Cupar”, mixing Gothic, Scottish and Flemish styles under a twisted spire. On the Kirkgate, the Parish Church of Cupar Old and St Michael of Tarvit keeps the 1415 tower, the only surviving piece of the old parish church founded by the priory of St Andrews, on a main church of 1745.

The Old Gaol of 1813–14 is not one of the options: it ceased to be a prison in 1844 and was sold to developers at the end of 2019. Cupar Museum and Heritage Centre has 4.3 from only 7 Google reviews.

Hill of Tarvit, Scotstarvit Tower and hickory golf

South of the town on the A914 and A916 stands Hill of Tarvit mansion house, run by the National Trust for Scotland and holding 4.6 from 419 Google reviews. It was Wemyss Hall first, designed by Sir Walter Bruce around 1692; after the house sold in 1904, Robert Lorimer was commissioned to build something larger, finished around 1907 and 1908. Inside are Flemish tapestries and antique French, English and Scottish furniture, considered among Lorimer’s best work.

Access is the practical point. A visitor in July 2026 wrote, “Now, you cant go here without going on a tour, so be prepared to wait but it’s well, well worth it.” Reviewers rate the guides as much as the rooms: another that month wrote, “We had a great tour guide who was so knowledgeable.”

Nearby, between the Tarvit and Walton Hills, is Scotstarvit Tower, a well-preserved L-plan tower house of the early 17th century, five storeys and an attic. The golf is a curiosity rather than a championship course: Cupar Golf Club, founded on 7 November 1855, plays on a hillside at Hill of Tarvit and is probably the oldest nine-hole club in the world, and the Kingarrock course at the mansion uses hickory-shafted clubs.

The fruit farm, the parks and a wet-day option

Cairnie Fruit Farm and Mega Maze is the most-reviewed place in the area by a distance, at 4.5 from 2,433 Google reviews. A visitor in August 2026 wrote, “Excellent place for the family. Maze is very big don’t let the kids run off. Cafe great and strawberries lovely”.

Regulars are less content with the 2026 season. Reviewers that month report a new charge levied on fruit picking, and a last admission earlier than the ticket implies. A returning visitor in August 2026 was flat about the rest: “an update on all the upgrades for 2026. There are none. Not one.” The score has barely moved, so the complaints are a minority, but check the farm’s arrangements before driving out to pick.

The rest of the outdoors is undramatic: Haugh Park at 4.3 from 139 Google reviews, the River Eden Walk at 4.5 from 28, Tarvit Pond Walk at 4.7 from 58. Duffus Park is reviewed for its events and its café — a visitor in January 2026 noted, “Great wee cafe here named after the dog called Harris.” For rain there is Wee Kingdom, an indoor soft play centre at 4.5 from 151, where a visitor in May 2026 warned, “Pre-book is a must as it can get very busy”.

Sheriffs, the three estates and the port at Guardbridge

The town is believed to have grown around Cupar Castle, the sheriff’s seat, owned by the earls of Fife, which made it a judicial centre and a market for cattle and sheep. In 1276 Alexander III organised an assembly of the three estates here — clergy, nobility and burgesses — a predecessor of the Parliament of Scotland. The founding charter is lost. Cupar was among the Earls of Fife’s properties by 1294 and was paying customs by the middle of the 14th century, which puts royal burgh status between 1294 and 1328; the oldest document to name the royal burgh is a grant by Robert II in 1381 of a port at Guardbridge on the River Eden, to boost trade with Flanders.

Fife Council is the largest employer now, with food and drink behind it — Kettle Produce, Quaker Oats and Fisher & Donaldson.

Getting there from St Andrews

The bus is the straightforward option. An express service runs every hour between Edinburgh and St Andrews through Cupar, and another between Glasgow and St Andrews; less frequent services reach St Andrews through the town from Stirling and from local villages.

The station sits south-east of the town centre on the East Coast Main Line, served by ScotRail and CrossCountry with regular trains between Edinburgh Waverley and Aberdeen; the neighbouring stations are Leuchars to the north-east and Ladybank to the south. Leuchars is 7.2 km from St Andrews and Cupar 13.4 km, so the train makes sense when you are arriving from further afield rather than day-tripping from the coast.