Glenrothes

Sister cities

• Böblingen
• Bergama

History

The decision on the town's name was taken by the Fife Planning Committee which met in Cupar on 4 July 1947. Twelve names were considered for the new town prior to its formal designation. From the list of names Glenrothes and Westwood tied with five ballot votes each. Cadham, Drostain, Thaines and Woodside each received a single vote. The name Westwood was proposed by Provost John Drummond, after Joseph Westwood, who was a strong advocate for the delivery of the new town, cut his political teeth in Fife and was Secretary of State for Scotland at the time. Glenrothes carried the day by eight votes to six on a second ballot despite the plea to recognise Westwood's “services to the country”. In a tragic twist of fate Joseph Westwood died 18 days later in a car accident. The name Rothes comes from the association with the Earl of Rothes, of the Leslie family. This family historically owned much of the land on which Glenrothes has been built, residing in Leslie House and also giving the family name to the adjacent village of Leslie in 1455; the village was previously known as 'Fettykill' or 'Fythkill' (Fiodh Chill in Scottish Gaelic). "Glen" (from the Scottish Gaelic word gleann meaning valley) was added to prevent confusion with Rothes in Moray, and to reflect the location of the town within the River Leven valley. Despite being built out predominantly across the latter half of the 20th Century there was evidence of habitation and activity across the area prior to and up to the development of Glenrothes. The remains of ancient stone circles exist at Balbirnie and Balfarg in the northeast of the town. The Balfarg henge was constructed around 3000 BC and contains the remnants of a stone circle which has been partly reconstructed. The henge was excavated between 1977 and…

Geography

Glenrothes lies inland and is located in mid-Fife between the agricultural Howe of Fife in the north and east and Fife's industrial heartland in the south and west. Its immediate neighbouring settlements are Coaltown of Balgonie, Leslie, Markinch and Thornton, whose boundaries are virtually indistinguishable from Glenrothes' forming a contiguous urban area. The villages of Kinglassie, Milton of Balgonie and Star are located slightly further away and are physically separated from Glenrothes by farmland, but are considered part of the Glenrothes Locality or Area. The port and traditional industrial settlements at Kirkcaldy and Levenmouth are located approximately to the south and east on the coast of the Firth of Forth. Glenrothes is also located equidistant from two of Fife's historically important principal settlements, Dunfermline and St Andrews, at away. Two of Scotland's major cities, Edinburgh and Dundee, are located almost equidistantly from Glenrothes at away, respectively. The smaller Scottish city of Perth is located to the northwest. The northern parts of the settlement lie upland on the southern fringes of the Lomond Hills Regional Park. The central parts of the town extend between the Warout Ridge and the southern edge of the River Leven valley; a substantial green space which passes east west through the town. Southern parts of Glenrothes are largely industrial and are situated on land which gently slopes south towards the Lochty Burn and the village of Thornton. The height above mean sea level at the town centre is . Temperatures in Glenrothes, like the rest of Scotland, are relatively moderate given its northern latitude. Fife is a peninsula, located between the Firth of Tay in the north, the Firth of Forth in the south and the North Sea in the…