Fife Folk Museum

Ceres lies in a small glen in Fife, two miles from Cupar and seven miles from St Andrews. The village grew around a market place and includes the hamlets of Baldinnie, Chance Inn, Craigrothie, Pitscottie and Tarvit Mill. Its name comes from the Gaelic for ‘west’, pointing towards St Andrews. In 1785 the Italian balloonist Vincenzo Lunardi landed here after the first flight in Scotland. The Fife Folk Museum occupies old buildings in the village, among them the 18th-century weigh-house. Grain was weighed on market days at a tron, and the same room once held minor offenders in the village jougs. The museum opened in 1968 to show how people lived in past centuries. Nearby stands the parish church built in 1806 to designs by Alexander Leslie. Its tower and octagonal spire were added in the 1850s, while inside the wooden box pews and gallery remain unchanged. Visitors find the weigh-house with its iron jougs still in place. The churchyard holds the mausoleum of John Lindsay, 20th Earl of Crawford. Two stained glass windows from the early 20th century light the pulpit, and the interior keeps its original fittings. The museum charts rural life with tools, clothes and household items from earlier times. Beyond the buildings, the quiet glen and surrounding farmland give a sense of how the area once looked.