The award-winning Scottish town just out of Edinburgh dubbed most 'radioactive'

As summer kicks into high gear, there is no limit to the amazing towns and villages all over Scotland you can visit for a day out.

While the Scottish weather will forever remain unpredictable, do not let that put you off immersing yourself in the country's most charming and picturesque destinations. One of these, found just nine miles from Edinburgh, is Dalgety Bay in Fife.

This coastal town and parish has lots going for it, but it also just so happens to be one of Scotland's "most radioactive" towns according to the Scottish Daily Express. Don't let that put you off a visit, though, as Dalgety Bay could make for the perfect day out this summer.

Having been crowned one of the country's Best Kept Small Towns on numerous occasions, the coastal destination stands toe-to-toe with some of Scotland's top towns thanks to its stunning coastline and vast expanses of lush green spaces. It is actually relatively new, dating back to just 1965 when it was founded as a private enterprise new town, though carries a rich — and unique — history.

Towering over the town is St Bridget's Church, sitting alongside ancient towers and grand mansions. Notable among these are the old Fordell Castle and Donibristle, the latter being the former home of the Earls of Moray that even has an old ballad written about it.

Looking back in time, the 2nd Earl of Moray James Stewart was slain on the town's shores in in 1592 by his rival George Gordon, the Earl of Huntly. This grim incident lives on in the hearts of Scots people through 'The Bonnie Earl O' Moray'.

Meanwhile, Dalgety Bay once housed an RAF base and a major aircraft repair yard — adding another layer to its colourful heritage. Much of the industrial estate on the north side of the town is constructed on the former runway of an airfield, with small sections still visible, while the tennis courts are situated on the concrete base of a hangar where aircraft were once repaired.

The town's aviation history is what led to a radioactive hotspot in Fife that took more than 30 years to fix. The coastline at Dalgety Bay was contaminated with radium from scrapped World War Two aircraft, leading to a ban on public access from 2011 to 2023.

The radioactive particles are thought to have originated from radium-coated glow-in-the-dark components in World War Two aircraft that were incinerated and dumped in the bay. Thousands of these particles have been discovered since 1990, but they pose a low risk to public health.

Unit manager of Sepa's radioactive substances team Prof Paul Dale commented: "The completion of this work is significant for Dalgety Bay and for Scotland's environment. Sepa have been clear in our requirements that remediation would be done once, and it would be done right — providing a permanent and positive resolution for the communities who lived with the environmental legacy of Second World War radium contamination for several decades."

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