Burntisland (/bɜːrntˈaɪlənd/ listenⓘ, Scots: Bruntisland)[2] is a former Royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland, on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth.

[3] Burntisland is known locally for its award-winning sandy beach, the 15th-century Rossend Castle, as well as the traditional summer fair and Highland games day.

To the north of the town a hill called The Binn is a landmark of the Fife coastline; a volcanic plug, it rises 193 metres (632 ft) above sea level.

[5] The earliest historical record of the town was in the 12th century, when the monks of Dunfermline Abbey owned the harbour and neighbouring lands.

[6] When the status was confirmed in 1586, the settlement gained independence from the barony of Kinghorn and was renamed Burntisland,[7] possibly a nickname from the burning of fishermens' huts on an islet now incorporated into the docks.

It is a unique shape, square with a central tower upheld on pillars, and lined all round with galleries, to allow the greatest number of people to be reached by the minister's words during the service.

In April 1615 there was a riot in broad daylight against one of her legal officers by a crowd of over a hundred women who took his letters and threw stones at him.

The rioters were "of the bangster Amasone kind" led by the wife of the Baillie of Burntisland according to the Chancellor Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline, who supposed the women were acting at the instigation of the townsmen including the minister Mr William Watson.

[13] An English report mentions a dock at Burntisland called the Newhaven and says a pier and the three blockhouses were to the west, at "Mill Dame".

[14] During the war of the Rough Wooing in 1548 the English commander Edward Clinton planned to reconstruct the harbour and pier and their defences, employing a military engineer.

The crew said they were whalers, and they had whaling equipment, but the town baillies were suspicious and imprisoned the officers in the tolbooth and put the rest under house arrest under suspicion of piracy.

[27] Robb Caledon eventually secured orders to for the yard to build modules for the North Sea oil and natural gas industry, and formed its Burntisland Engineering Fabricators (BEF) subsidiary to manage this work.

Towards the end of the 1970s orders declined, in 1978 Robb Caledon was nationalised as part of British Shipbuilders and in 1979 Burntisland yard was closed.

In 1990 under new owners Burntisland West Dock resumed the production of major offshore oil and gas fabrications.

The main body of the church serves as a burial vault to the local family Aytoun (Ayton) of Grange.

In 1601 it was the meeting place of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland due to an outbreak of plague in the usual venue in Edinburgh.

Immediately to the west of Burntisland railway station lies the 9-span viaduct forming a significant feature in the harbour area of the town.

Built in 1888 to carry the main railway line from Edinburgh to Dundee, it is now a Category C Listed structure, being a rare example of a surviving Town truss.

From May to August the annual summer funfair, known as the Shows,[35] comes to town and there is also the second oldest highland games in the world, held on the third Monday every July.

Burntisland railway station is on the Fife Circle Line and provides direct links with Kirkcaldy to the north and Edinburgh to the south.