A former mining village on the Carden Burn in the parish of Auchterderran, S Central Fife, Cardenden is linked to the settlements of Auchterderran, Bowhill and Dundonald and was the home of the poet Joe Corrie (1894 - 1968) who gives his name to the Corrie Centre. Cardenden was also the birthplace in 1960 of award-winning crime writer Ian Rankin.
Carden Tower was built in the 16th Century by the Mertyne family of Medhope and the last duel in Scotland is said to have been fought on 2nd August 1826 in a field at Cardenbarns to the south of Cardenden. The village began in 1849 as a railway station on the Edinburgh and Northern Railway and grew rapidly in the 1920s and 1930s associated with the expansion of mining activities.
A station remains to the northwest of the settlement. Local industries include engineering and the manufacture of alloy castings.
