very large blocks of stone could not be moved during conversion. ‘The Other

Poffle’ has also been extensively modernised and extended.

The land between the present ‘Poffle’ and the road to the north was sold

to the Fife County Council for £250 in 1952. The name of the road was

changed in 1960 to Sunnyside, having been known before that as either Poffle

Lane or Poffle Road. Eighteen houses have been built on that part of land

which was at one time only a very small part of ‘The Town and Lands of

Poffle’. Another part of Poffle land, latterly known as The Paddock, has

recently been sold for building two houses.

The oldest surviving house in Strathkinness is ‘Lilac Cottage’ at 45

Sunnyside on Pettycruik. It was feued to Robert Aitken in 1761 by Henry

Bethune of Clatto. The house was built in 1761, the same year the ground was

feued, but it has been extensively rebuilt. It seems to have remained in the

Aitken family until 1920 when the feu of the property consisting of several

houses was obtained by the father of the present owner of the property.

‘Kellock House’ 47 Sunnyside, on the other side of Pettycruik, is another

of the oldest houses in Strathkinness, although not built until nearly

thirty years after ‘Lilac Cottage’ (the present name of the house). It was

feued in 1796 to David Atkin, a mason from St. Andrews. By the next year

a ‘house with two byres’ was built on the site. The house was sold in 1815

to a sawyer, James Traill from St. Andrews, and in 1852 it was sold by public

roup (auction) for £27 to a baker, Thomas Scott. He sold the house a year

later for £80 to another mason, James Dewar from Strathkinness. Then in

1852 the same Thomas Scott who sold the house in 1852 bought it back in

1866 for £80, but sold it in 1868 to another baker, James Scott of

Strathkin ness for £150. (It is not known whether the two Scotts were related

but the census returns of 1841 and 1861 show a James Scott as one of two

bakers in Strathkinness.) The house remained a baker’s shop until 1869

when James Scott, who was indebted to Robert Tod, a flour merchant from

Leith, was obliged to convey the property to him to pay his debts.

The property was put up at public roup with an upset price of £150, but as

there were no offers at that price the property was subsequently offered for

sale at the upset price of £120. It was bought by Robert Lyell, a vintner,

St. Andrews, who paid £152 — £2 more than the first upset price. There is

no record of a Robert Lyell who was a vintner in Strathkinness in the census

of 1871, sO it is likely that he had bought the property for letting, which was

a common practice. At Robert LyeIl’s death in 1892 the house was again

sold at public roup, this time for £125 when it was bought by a widow, a Mrs.

Janet McCubbin. She bequeathed it in turn to her brother and sister during

their lifetime and it then went to her nephew John Coupar Lyall, an insurance

agent in St. Andrews who sold it in 1922 for £250 to Robert Dow, a farmer

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