One of John Henry Lorimer’s sisters affectionately accused him of ‘persistent burrowing’: of being inclined to retreat from the world. After finding early success as a portrait painter, with studios in both Edinburgh and London, he was lured to the East Neuk by his protective mother, concerned by his persistent ill health. A studio was purpose-built for him at their summer residence of Kellie Castle, where he came to spend more and more time; after his mother’s death in 1916 it became his principal residence. However, his career stagnated after its brilliant beginning; his professional reputation certainly faded, despite his continuing to paint until his death in 1936.

On a beam in the room below his studio a line from one of John Donne’s poems has been inscribed: ‘Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail’. Martin Gulbis, from Kellie Visitor Services, will consider whether Lorimer found his peace at Kellie Castle.

Members and non-members are welcome to attend our public talks at Dreel Halls in Anstruther. If you are not yet a member of the AIA you can attend individual Anster Nichts for £3 per event. Membership is £10 per year and to find out more please visit our Membership page:
http://www.anstrutherimprovements.org/support-us/membership/ 

We welcome back David Jones to explore the important connections between celebrated eighteenth century cabinet maker, Thomas Chippendale, and our local area. David’s talk will introduce the characters who subscribed to Chippendale’s famous furniture pattern book and investigate their sometimes surprising relationships.

Members and non-members are welcome to attend our public talks at Dreel Halls in Anstruther. If you are not yet a member of the AIA you can attend individual Anster Nichts for £3 per event. Membership is £10 per year and to find out more please visit our Membership page:
http://www.anstrutherimprovements.org/support-us/membership/ 

If you have ever walked from the Scottish Fisheries Museum along Shore Street, you will have been on a space walk, following the trail of the Anstruther Model Solar System. Starting at the Sun Tavern you quickly run into Mercury, Venus and Earth, but space is big: it’s a good 10-minute walk to the edge of the Solar System at High Street West. Along your way you will find the eight planets that make up our Solar System, as well as the asteroid, Ceres, and the dwarf planet, Pluto.

What do the planets and other objects in our solar system look like, what do we know about them, and what do we not know yet? How do we collect information from these far-away worlds? And will we ever be able to visit? In this talk Dr Anne-Marie Weijmans, Reader in Astrophysics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St Andrews, will take a voyage through the Solar System, and find out how astronomical research is shaping our understanding of the different worlds that make up our Solar System. Time permitting, we will also travel a bit further into space and will have a look at some of the other solar systems out there in the Universe.

Please note this talk is rescheduled from the 2023-2024 season.

Members and non-members are welcome to attend our public talks at Dreel Halls in Anstruther. If you are not yet a member of the AIA you can attend individual Anster Nichts for £3 per event. Membership is £10 per year and to find out more please visit our Membership page:
http://www.anstrutherimprovements.org/support-us/membership/ 

Robert Burns never visited St Andrews or the East Neuk despite there being many good reasons why he should have done so. Robert Fergusson, ‘his elder brother in the muse’ and much admired by Burns, was a graduate of St Andrews. Many of the landowners and influential people from Fife were well known to Burns from his time in Edinburgh. St Andrews had been at the centre of Scotland's religious revolution, and for nearly 600 years it had the largest roofed building in Scotland.

Neil McNair is Past President of the Robert Burns World Federation and his talk will focus on the reasons why Burns did not come to our part of Scotland, providing an overview of cultural life in St Andrews between 1760 and 1830.

Members and non-members are welcome to attend our public talks at Dreel Halls in Anstruther. If you are not yet a member of the AIA you can attend individual Anster Nichts for £3 per event. Membership is £10 per year and to find out more please visit our Membership page:
http://www.anstrutherimprovements.org/support-us/membership/ 

How do you create a local nature reserve? It sounds easy: find a good space and just let nature do its thing in peace. But how do you find a good space for nature in crowded, intensive farmland landscapes like the East Neuk? And how do you prioritise nature when people have an expectation that they come first?

The answer is a long, difficult journey of land acquisition and planning law, and an even longer conversation with everyone you can think of to change the culture.

Will Cresswell, Trustee of Crail Community Partnership, will describe how the Crail community is making this journey and its successes, particularly with Kilminning, where it recently turned a brownfield site into a wetland and meadow for wildlife. Expect tales of listed tarmac, antisocial behaviour and Vikings! Plus a fair bit of what is really important – local wildlife and how to conserve it.

Members and non-members are welcome to attend our public talks at Dreel Halls in Anstruther. If you are not yet a member of the AIA you can attend individual Anster Nichts for £3 per event. Membership is £10 per year and to find out more please visit our Membership page:
http://www.anstrutherimprovements.org/support-us/membership/ 

The Dreel Burn runs through the heart of Anstruther, after making its way across the landscape of the East Neuk.

Rivers such as the Dreel face many issues, from diverse land uses, flooding, drought, pollution and invasive non-native species.

Find out from Jonathan Louis, Co-Director of the Forth Rivers Trust, how the Dreel Burn Project is bringing together partners, such as the Trust, the AIA, land managers and communities, to boost the biodiversity of the Dreel whilst making it resilient for the future. 

Members and non-members are welcome to attend our public talks at Dreel Halls in Anstruther. If you are not yet a member of the AIA you can attend individual Anster Nichts for £3 per event. Membership is £10 per year and to find out more please visit our Membership page:
http://www.anstrutherimprovements.org/support-us/membership/ 

For more than 600 years, the University has drawn pioneering individuals to St Andrews to research and to learn. The stories of these people can be found in the collection of the University Museums. 

In this talk, Eilidh Lawrence, Head of Museum and Photographic Collections, University of St Andrews, will share some of the ground-breaking discoveries, inventions and ideas that were developed in Fife and have had a lasting impact on Scotland. Some of them even changed the world.

The industrial landscape of the East Neuk has changed significantly in the last 150 years. All physical evidence seems to have gone of boatbuilder, John Alexander Millar's yards. He built at least 60 large fishing vessels in Cellardyke, before moving to Anstruther Esplanade.

Richard Wemyss will tell of his discovery of this highly regarded and innovative boatbuilder and some of the vessels he built during the largest period of growth in our fishing industry, the 1860s to 1903.

The ‘Beggar’s Mantle Fring’d with Gold’ that is the East Neuk and its string of coastal burghs enjoyed a period of prosperity in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries – and this is reflected in what survives of its carved oak furniture.What does remain is very distinctive in its vocabulary of motifs and carving style.

This talk is a detective story, in which David Jones puts together evidence for a furniture-making workshop that flourished between 1590 and 1630, examining pieces that have been found in places as far apart as Anstruther and Anglesey.

If you have ever walked from the Scottish Fisheries Museum along Shore Street, you will have been on a space walk, following the trail of the Anstruther Model Solar System. Starting at the Sun Tavern you quickly run into Mercury, Venus and Earth, but space is big: it’s a good 10-minute walk to the edge of the Solar System at High Street West. Along your way you will find the eight planets that make up our Solar System, as well as the asteroid, Ceres, and the dwarf planet, Pluto. 

What do the planets and other objects in our solar system look like, what do we know about them, and what do we not know yet? How do we collect information from these far-away worlds? And will we ever be able to visit? In this talk Dr Anne-Marie Weijmans, Reader in Astrophysics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St Andrews, will take a voyage through the Solar System, and find out how astronomical research is shaping our understanding of the different worlds that make up our Solar System. Time permitting, we will also travel a bit further into space and will have a look at some of the other solar systems out there in the Universe.

Please note this event will start not before 7.30pm and follow on from the AIA's AGM, which will begin at 7pm.