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The Firth of Forth coast downstream from Kincardine Bridge mainly consists of low wooded bluffs that extend behind a rocky shore and intertidal sand and mudflats. In the vicinity of the Forth Railway Bridge the coast is almost entirely artificial, with sea walls. To the east is a series of rocky outcrops with low cliffs and intervening bays and inlets and shores of muddy sand, as in Dalgety Bay. The Firth of Forth then widens eastward, and a cliffed promontory faces across Mortimers Deep to the rocky island of Inchcolm.

A succession of bays and promontories continues past Burntisland and the wide sandy shore of Pettycur Bay to Kinghorn, where the calciferous sandstone is interrupted by a basalt dyke. The cliffy coastline then swings north to Kirkcaldy and north-east to Leven. Largo Bay is a large south-facing, curved sandy beach backed by low amorphous dunes.

The south facing coast of Fife, between Earlsferry and Fife Ness has a series of small sandy bays in gaps in the rocky shore...

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References

  • McManus J, Wal A (1996) Sediment accumulation mechanisms on the Tentsmuir coast. In: Whittington G (ed) Fragile Environments: The Use and Management of Tentsmuir National Nature Reserve. Edinburgh, Scotland, pp 1–15

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  • Wal A, McManus J (1993) Wind regime and sand transport on a coastal beach-dune complex, Tentsmuir, Vol 72, Geological Society Special Publication, London, pp 159–171

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Ritchie, W. (2010). Fife. In: Bird, E.C.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of the World's Coastal Landforms. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8639-7_85

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