North Carr

Shipwrecks around the reef include the schooner Louise; the trawlers James Ross & Festing Grindall; the tanker Vildfugl; the brig Andreas; the paddle steamer Commodore; the coaster Island Magee; the cargo steamer Einar Jarl & Bjornhaug. A buoy was first placed by the Northern Lighthouse Board in 1809, but this was found to be inadequate and would wreck in winter storms. The remains can still be seen of a second project, the North Carr Beacon. This was started in 1813 by Robert Stevenson, a famous lighthouse engineer. The fixed light could be seen for 11 mi. The crew of the lightship managed to set anchor off Kingsbarns and were taken off by helicopter the next day but the ship was not taken…

The reef extends for 1.5 mi northeastwards from Fife Ness Points Coastguard station (East Coast Fife) into the North Sea and the greater Firth of Forth. It is made up of some fourteen sandstone rocks that are completely submerged at high tide. These include Englishman's Skelly, Kneestone, Tullybothy Craigs, Lochaber Rock and Mary's Skelly. Carr is a Scots term for a coastal rock, found as an element in the names of reefs and small islands in south-east Scotland and north-east England. It may have entered Old English from a Celtic source; compare carra or carraig in Gaelic, terms for a ledge or projecting rock.

Visitors can park in the Crail Golfing Society carpark and follow the track that leads to the lighthouse and Coastguard Station. The North Carr rocks are only visible at low tide. When Stevenson was building the beacon, the stone blocks were cut and checked for fitting on the foreshore here prior to being shipped out to the reef. The bedrock was levelled to form a base for the first course of blocks and a higher course. These circular outlines can still be seen cut into the rock on the shore, as can the nearby remains of the quay where the finished blocks were loaded onto the workboat. Pods of dolphin and less frequently whales can be seen from the shore, with the aid of binoculars.