Dalgety Bay

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Looking South across Dalgety Bay and the Firth of Forth, March 2006

Dalgety Bay, a coastal town in Fife, Scotland, stands on the north shore of the Firth of Forth.

Dalgety Bay is the name of the town and the bay which fronts a large proportion of the shoreline. The bay was named after the original village of Dalgety, but the ruins of the 12th century St. Bridget's Kirk are all that now mark the site. St. Bridget's Kirk was in existence some time before 1178, as it is mentioned in a Papal Bull written by Pope Alexander III. The new town takes its name from the main bay it adjoins, but the town stretches over many bays and coves including Donibristle Bay and St David's Bay.

The site of the new town once formed part of the estates of the Earl of Moray, part of whose mansion, Donibristle House, remains. The area consisted of the Earl's extensive ornamental gardens and of a number of small villages.

During World War I Morton Gray Stuart, 17th Earl of Moray donated a portion of his land to the Crown, which built a military airfield there. The Royal Air Force improved and expanded the aerodrome during World War II, and constructed an extensive aircraft maintenance facility there. Work done at this facility included repainting radium dials on bomber gauges, and during subsequent planning for the newtown in the area, investigators found that the radioactive material used in this process had contaminated the ground.

The current newtown of Dalgety Bay, built largely as a commuter town (anticipating the completion of the nearby Forth Road Bridge in 1964), dates from 1962. The town covers the land of the (by then disused) airstrip and much of the remaining ground of Donibristle House. Named after the neighbouring small bay in the Forth Estuary, Dalgety Bay ranked as the first "private enterprise new town" in Scotland. Although the developers removed most of the airstrip, small sections of the runway remain (including the apron of an aircraft factory which forms the town's tennis court). Donibristle Industrial Estate (immediately to the north of the town) also stands on part of the former runway. Still expanding, Dalgety Bay functions largely as a dormitory community, occupied by commuters to Edinburgh and their families.