Old Map of East Fife by Joan Blaeu, 1654

Joan Blaeu’s Old Map of East Fife

This old map of East Fife was published by Joan Blaeu in Amsterdam in 1654 as part of the first atlas devoted to Scotland. Its engraved title, Fifæ Pars Orientalis — The East Part of Fife, identifies it as the eastern companion to Blaeu’s separate map of West Fife.

Unlike the smaller-scale map depicting the whole county, this engraving concentrates upon eastern and central Fife. Its larger scale allowed many more settlements, waterways and local place names to be recorded, creating a fascinating portrait of the region before modern roads, railways and industrial towns altered its appearance.

Map details

• Original title: Fifæ Pars Orientalis — The East Part of Fife
• Region shown: Eastern and central Fife, with Dundee across the Firth of Tay
• Original survey: Timothy Pont
• Cartographic preparation: associated with James Gordon
• Publisher: Joan Blaeu
• Published: Amsterdam, 1654
• Atlas: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive Atlas Novus, Part Five
• Format: Copperplate engraving, with colour added separately to some original examples

From Timothy Pont to Joan Blaeu

The map’s geographical foundations lay in the pioneering surveys of Timothy Pont, who travelled through Scotland during the late sixteenth century recording rivers, settlements, castles, estates and regional place names. Pont died before he could publish his proposed atlas, but his surviving manuscript maps were preserved and eventually supplied to Joan Blaeu’s publishing house in Amsterdam.

The Scottish cartographers Robert Gordon of Straloch and his son James Gordon helped revise and prepare this inherited material. The National Library of Scotland’s catalogue associates James Gordon with the preparation of the East Fife map while identifying Pont as its original surveyor. Individual responsibility is not always straightforward, however, because the printed plate itself does not name its source.

Blaeu transformed this accumulated Scottish knowledge into a finely engraved atlas map. Although it appeared in 1654, much of the landscape it records reflects Pont’s observations made approximately half a century earlier. It therefore preserves place names and settlement patterns whose origins reach back into sixteenth-century Scotland.

Following the River Eden to the East Neuk

The River Eden provides one of the principal threads through the engraving. Its catchment is shown from the higher ground of central Fife eastwards towards the coast, passing through a landscape of estates, farms and long-established communities.

Falkland and Cupar occupy important positions. Falkland was closely associated with the royal palace and surrounding hunting country, while Cupar was Fife’s county town and an established centre of administration and trade. Numerous smaller settlements are packed into the country around them, particularly across the fertile northern part of the region.

St Andrews appears near the eastern coast, its importance extending far beyond its physical size. As the historic ecclesiastical centre of Scotland and the home of the country’s oldest university, it was one of Fife’s most distinguished burghs.

Farther south, the coastline bends around the fishing settlements and harbours of the East Neuk. Crail, Anstruther, Pittenweem and neighbouring communities belonged to a maritime landscape shaped by fishing, coastal trade and contact with ports across the North Sea. The lower reaches of the River Leven and the country approaching the Firth of Forth are also included.

Dundee appears prominently beyond the Firth of Tay at the upper edge of the map. It was not part of Fife, but its inclusion helps establish the county’s position between two great estuaries and acknowledges the close commercial connections maintained across the Tay.

Reading a Seventeenth-Century Landscape

Blaeu’s map should not be read as a modern measured survey. Hills are represented pictorially, waterways are emphasised and towns are distinguished by conventional clusters of buildings. Roads are not recorded systematically, while the importance of castles, churches and estates is often suggested through their symbols.

Historic spellings are among the map’s most absorbing features. Some places are immediately recognisable; others survive in altered forms or have disappeared from modern maps. For people tracing family or local history, these early names provide a tangible connection with communities recorded more than three centuries ago.

The East Fife plate overlaps both Blaeu’s map of West Fife and his map of the whole county. The three engravings do not simply repeat one another: they were created at different scales and from source material assembled at different times, resulting in noticeable variations in place names and geographical detail.

A Decorative Record of East Fife

The title is presented within an ornate figure cartouche, giving the map the decorative character associated with Blaeu’s Amsterdam workshop. Original impressions were printed in black ink from an engraved copperplate, after which colour could be applied by hand. Surviving originals consequently vary in their colouring and appearance.

Today Fifæ Pars Orientalis offers more than a record of historic geography. It brings together the fertile country around Cupar and Falkland, the ancient importance of St Andrews, the harbours of the East Neuk and the broad waters separating Fife from Dundee. The result is an old map with a particularly strong sense of place—one that still speaks to those whose homes, memories or family histories belong to the Kingdom of Fife.