This was my third visit to St Monans, one of the lovely fishing villages along the Fife coast, but my first opportunity to photograph the zig-zag breakwater from the harbour, which was the main reason for my return.

I was spending a few days based in St Andrews and took a trip down to the East Neuk on an afternoon with a reasonable forecast of clouds and sunny intervals and low wind for around sunset, which I hoped would give the best conditions for the breakwater.  Breaks in the cloud allowed the low sun to illuminate the colourful cottages by the harbour on my arrival, so I spent some time here before a short walk along the Fife coast path.

I had a quick look at Newark Castle but I’d covered that pretty well on my previous visit so made my way back towards the village as the sun started to set.  The light caught the Auld Kirk nicely with the harbour in the distance.

Back at the harbour the light was really nice so I spent some more time around the fishing cottages and boats before walking around the harbour and clambering onto the sea wall. This was the reason for this being my third visit to St Monans – on the first occasion I didn’t know about the breakwater and didn’t spot it as it’s concealed behind the sea wall when you’re wandering around the harbour area and on my second visit when I made a point of seeking it out it was extremely windy (I could barely stand up on the coast path) so standing on the sea wall was out of the question! Hence my choice of a day with low wind for the trip back…

The clouds were thickening up a bit, but a break in the cover letting the last rays of the sun shine through illuminated the breakwater nicely (featured image, top).  After the sun sank below the horizon I waited on well into the twilight for the optimum blue hour moment.