Old Map of West Fife by Joan Blaeu, 1654

Joan Blaeu’s Old Map of West Fife

Joan Blaeu’s old map of West Fife was first published in Amsterdam in 1654 as part of the fifth volume of his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive Atlas Novus. Its engraved title, Fifæ Pars Occidentalis — The West Part of Fife, identifies it as the companion to Blaeu’s separate and overlapping map of East Fife.

The map concentrates upon western and central Fife, tracing a landscape of royal burghs, coastal settlements, lochs, rivers, estates and early industrial communities. Its geographical information reflects Scotland as recorded before modern roads, railways and the later expansion of the mining towns.

Map details

• Original title: Fifæ Pars Occidentalis — The West Part of Fife
• Region shown: Western and central Fife, from the Forth coast towards Loch Leven
• Original survey: Timothy Pont
• Publisher: Joan Blaeu
• First published: Amsterdam, 1654
• Atlas: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive Atlas Novus, Part Five
• Format: Copperplate engraving, with colour added separately to some original impressions
• Product type: Fine art reproduction map print

Timothy Pont and the First Survey of Scotland

The map’s geographical foundations came from Timothy Pont, the pioneering Scottish surveyor who travelled through much of the country during the late sixteenth century. Pont recorded towns, villages, castles, estates, rivers and local place names with a degree of detail previously unknown in Scottish mapping.

Pont died before his proposed atlas could be published. His manuscript maps were subsequently preserved and sent to the Blaeu workshop in Amsterdam, where they were organised and prepared for engraving. Robert Gordon of Straloch and his son James Gordon assisted with the wider task of reviewing the Scottish material, although modern research indicates that the two larger maps of East and West Fife were probably derived substantially from Pont’s earlier work.

The West Fife plate therefore presents an intriguing combination of dates. It was published by Joan Blaeu in 1654, but much of the landscape and settlement information may reflect Pont’s observations from the 1580s and 1590s. In this sense, the engraving preserves a view of western Fife reaching back towards the reign of James VI.

From Dunfermline to the Firth of Forth

Dunfermline occupies an important position within the map. The town’s royal abbey, palace and associations with generations of Scottish monarchs made it one of the most historically significant places in Fife. Long before its later industrial expansion, Dunfermline was already a royal burgh and an established centre of religion, administration and commerce.

South of the town, the coastline of the Firth of Forth is marked by a succession of settlements with longstanding maritime connections. Inverkeithing, Aberdour, Burntisland and Kinghorn served as harbours, ferry points and trading communities. Kirkcaldy appears farther east within the area shared with Blaeu’s companion map.

The waterways of the Forth connected these communities with Edinburgh, the Lothians and trading ports farther afield. Fishing, coastal transport and commerce were essential parts of life, while the fortified houses and estates depicted inland reflect a landscape shaped by powerful families and inherited landholding.

Northwards, the map reaches through the interior of Fife towards Loch Leven and the surrounding hills. Smaller communities recorded in this country include places that later grew with coal mining and manufacturing, alongside others that remained villages, farms or estates.

The map is particularly valuable for its early place names. Some appear in spellings close to those used today, while others were recorded phonetically or altered during the engraving process. A few identify settlements and properties that have since disappeared or been absorbed into larger towns.

Reading the Seventeenth-Century Map

This is not a measured topographical survey in the modern sense. Hills are represented pictorially, waterways are emphasised and settlements are indicated by conventional groups of buildings. Castles and important houses may be distinguished by their symbols, but roads are not shown systematically.

The map also contains geographical inaccuracies. Research comparing Blaeu’s three Fife plates has demonstrated that the separate East and West maps are less precise than James Gordon’s later map of the complete county. One example concerns the lochs north of Burntisland, whose names and positions became confused in the western plate.

Such imperfections are historically valuable. They show how geographical knowledge travelled from a surveyor’s field notes through manuscript copies and revisions before reaching an engraver in Amsterdam. The map records not only the landscape but also the process by which seventeenth-century Scotland was interpreted for an international audience.

Three Different Views of Fife

Blaeu’s atlas contains three maps covering Fife: this western plate, its companion map of East Fife and a smaller-scale map of the whole county.

The maps overlap, but they are not merely enlargements of the same information. The two regional plates appear to preserve older material associated with Pont, while the complete county map reflects the later work of James Gordon. Place names, settlement density and geographical detail consequently differ between them.

The ornate title cartouche, engraved lettering and delicately drawn landscape give Fifæ Pars Occidentalis the decorative quality associated with Blaeu’s workshop. More than three and a half centuries later, it remains an absorbing historic map of Dunfermline, the Forth coast and the old communities of western Fife.