Initially this was to be done by providing new homes, industries, infrastructure and services needed to support the development of a newly established National Coal Board 'super pit', the Rothes Colliery.

[12] The land which Glenrothes now occupies was largely agricultural, and once contained a number of small rural communities and the hamlets of Cadham[26] and Woodside, which were established to house workers at local paper mills.

The initial preferred option for the new town would have centred it on Markinch, building around the original settlement and utilising the existing services and infrastructure, including the rail station there.

[6] Leslie and Thornton were also considered as possible locations, again meeting local opposition, and eventually the area between all of these villages, amounting to 5,320 acres (2,153 ha), was zoned for the new town's development.

[38] The case for developing Glenrothes was partially driven by this strategy, and was further advanced in a report produced in 1946 by Sir Frank Mears to the Central and South-East Scotland Planning Committee.

[43] Loraine soon persuaded the Glenrothes Development Corporation that the construction work should be carried out by Cadco's own building company, which had opened a depot in nearby Kirkcaldy.

It transpired that Cadco did not have the money to back up its plans; and the banks and small companies who had respectively paid for and done the advance work found themselves out of pocket; and its employees lost their jobs.

As the hoped-for jobs evaporated, the development corporation, the Royal Bank of Scotland and others involved had to explain to the Board of Trade inspectors how they been taken in by Denis Loraine and Cadco.

Historians speculate that this was because of the involvement, direct and indirect, of people in high places, particularly future Prime Minister, Edward Heath and Hollywood actress Jayne Mansfield.

After the scandal broke, Loraine fled to the United States, only avoiding a long prison sentence by working under cover to help bring to justice those behind the biggest counterfeiting operation in US history.

This was largely due to the electronics industrial sector in Glenrothes and most of central Scotland being dependent upon an inward investment strategy that led to almost 43% of employment in foreign-owned plants which were susceptible to changes in global economic markets.

[52] The GDC was finally wound up in 1995 after which responsibility for Glenrothes was largely transferred to Fife Council with assets such as the Kingdom Shopping Centre, industrial and office units sold off to private sector companies.

The Scottish Government and Fife Council established a taskforce to help mitigate the effects of job losses and put in place appropriate support for a sustainable future for the area.

There was some controversy in this arrangement in that Glenrothes was the only new town designated in the UK without the power to agree to any planning applications that fell within its boundary with such decisions taken by either Kirkcaldy District or Fife Regional Councils.

Kirkcaldy, a former royal burgh, port and industrial town is the next nearest large settlement located approximately 7 miles (11 km) to the south on the coast of the Firth of Forth.

Engineers, planners, builders and architects were tasked with creating not only good quality mass-produced housing but green spaces, tree planting, wildlife corridors and soft and hard landscaping.

[95] The new homes simultaneously provided affordable housing for people being relocated from crowded "slum" areas in the industrial Central Belt (and Glasgow in particular), though the latter was less of priority for Glenrothes initially compared to other Scottish new towns such as East Kilbride and Cumbernauld which were more specifically planned to fulfill a so-called "overspill" function.

[96][97] Early neighbourhoods were based on Ebenezer Howard's Garden City philosophy, using relatively tried and tested principles of town planning and architecture which is reflected in their housing styles and layouts.

[98] The road network was redesigned and upgraded to deal with projected increases in car ownership and new housing estates were developed to the west, then to the south and finally to the north of the designated area.

These coal measures form part of the East Fife coalfield and prior to 1962 the deposits there were to be worked by the Rothes Colliery, until it was found that there were severe issues with water penetration and subsequent flooding.

[10] In 2013 Indian beverages group Kyndal entered into a joint venture with John Fergus & Co Ltd to establish a new Scotch whisky distillery and bonded warehouse facility in Glenrothes.

SWI aims to deliver a centre of excellence in Glenrothes for the support of the cask investment and storage market that allows Scotch to age on site, creating high-quality matured whisky.

Alongside its plans for Glenrothes, SWI is also aiming to deliver a new visitor centre that will showcase and educate people about single malt Scotch whisky in nearby Falkland.

[152][153][154] Major housing developments are taking place in the area, including at the former Tullis Russell papermills,[155] Cadham Road, Markinch South and at Westwood Park which will collectively deliver over a thousand new build homes between 2022 and 2030.

A charrette was held in 2017, facilitated by PAS and supported by design experts, Fife Council and the Scottish Government to inform an action plan for the future of the area.

[195][196] Glenrothes hosts an annual gala which is held at Warout Park and has a variety of family activities including a dog show, highland dancing and a travelling funfair with stalls.

The bridge was designed by Dundee-based Nicoll Russell Studios, Architects and was commissioned by the Glenrothes Development Corporation (GDC) as a landmark creating a gateway into Riverside Park that could be seen from further afield.

Externally the church with its distinctive triangular iron bell tower and Mondrian inspired stained glass windows[237] acts as a landmark at the south-western gateway to the town centre.

This gives Glenrothes a continuous dual-carriageway link to Edinburgh and the major central Scotland road networks, whilst much of the route north to Dundee remains a single-carriageway.

[251] This includes a near three mile continuous linear cycle path, called Boblingen Way, which extends across the length of Glenrothes, from Leslie in the west, to Woodside in the east.