Overview of High Valleyfield

A large former mining village in W Fife, situated midway between Dunfermline and Kincardine. It sits above an escarpment overlooking Low Valleyfield on the coast of the Firth of Forth. The village was developed in the 20th century on part of the Valleyfield Estate, which was purchased by the East Fife Coal Co. in 1907. It comprises a preponderance of public housing, but with a new development of private housing having extended the village to the west around Woodhead Steading in the early 21st century.

The western entrance to the village passes between two square classical blocks which were the former gatehouses to Valleyfield Estate and are now B-listed. Valleyfield House was a fine classical mansion probably constructed in the later 18th century. Rebuilt and extended by Sir Robert Preston (1740 - 1834), it lay to the north of High Valleyfield (on the opposite side of what is now the A985 road). Having been abandoned in the early 20th century, it was eventually demolished in 1941. Its policies now form Valleyfield Woodland Park.