North Queensferry is a historic coastal village in Fife, Scotland, situated on the Firth of Forth, 9 mi (14 km) from Edinburgh city centre.

The town derives its name from the ferry service established by Queen Margaret in the 11th century; the prefix North serves to distinguish it from South Queensferry, on the opposite shore of the Forth.

Margaret is said to have made her arrival in Scotland here in 1068, and to have regularly used the ferry crossing when travelling between the then capital Dunfermline, and Edinburgh Castle.

The site of the village, on the narrowest part of the Firth of Forth, with added advantage of the island of Inchgarvie in between, suggests that it was the natural point of crossing and a vital link to the north of Scotland for centuries before the Queen's Ferry was established.

North Queensferry over the centuries remained a small community, with a population of probably no more than 600, and it never achieved the status of burgh like many of the nearby settlements.

Fighting spread as far as Pitreavie on the far side of Inverkeithing and was said to have been particularly bloody: reputedly the Pinkerton Burn ran red with blood for days and the heaps of the dead resembled stooks in a harvest field.

To accommodate the deeper draughts of the new, larger steam-powered ferries, Thomas Telford extended Town Pier in 1828 to its present length.

The idea of a bridge across the Forth had been debated frequently in the past, but the depth of the water and the hard whinstone rock base found underneath had discouraged any attempts.

North Queensferry forms part of the Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy Westminster constituency, currently held by Melanie Ward MP for the Scottish Labour Party.

[7] For the Scottish Parliament North Queensferry forms part of the Cowdenbeath constituency[8] which falls within the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region.

[10] One of North Queensferry's biggest attractions, other than the extensive views it offers of the three bridges crossing the Forth, is Deep Sea World, and aquarium opened in 1993.

The oldest inhabited house in the village, at one time the Black Cat Inn, is in Main Street opposite the late Georgian Albert Hotel.

The oldest building in the village is the nearby early 14th century Chapel of St James ("the Greater" – patron saint of pilgrims) founded by Robert the Bruce around 1320–23, abandoned after the Reformation and believed to have been destroyed by Parliamentarian troops in 1651.

At the station, a large mosaic mural completed in 1990 by local people including children from the nearby primary school marks the centenary of the opening of the rail bridge.

[13] North Queensferry is bounded by two sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs): The entire shoreline of the Firth of Forth and the Carlingnose Point Nature Reserve.

The Forth shoreline is an SSSI both on account of its geology and its biological habitats, such as its mudflats which support numerous species of sea birds, many of which are to be seen and heard in and around North Queensferry.

Near the station is the village primary school (a large pink sandstone category B listed Art Nouveau building dating from 1912 to 1914),[19] a small general store and a community centre (all in Brock Street).

The path follows the B981, continues past the Waterloo Memorial at the foot of the Brae and heads along the coast to Inverkeithing via Carlingnose Point, and then Port Laing, a cove with a sandy beach and steep wooded slopes.