Buildings
Elie has an unusual parish church with a tall hexagonal tower, topped with a belvedere detail, centrally located on the church. It is approached on axis from the High Street, increasing the drama of its architecture, and surrounded by a churchyard burial ground.
On the outer corner of the churchyard wall, where the main road makes a right angle, stands the village war memorial. This is of particularly poignant composition, as each name listed also states their trade before the war and their battalion number and regiment. This therefore highlights a number of "ploughmen" and a high ratio of "chauffeurs". It may be speculated that the latter were in service on the several large country estates encircling the village.
'Elie Castle' is an interesting Scots vernacular extended tower house, standing close to the waterline. Superficially it dates largely from the early 17th century but contains older elements possibly from the 15th century. The High Street nearby contains several good 17th century houses with curious doorpieces.
Read more about this topic: Elie And Earlsferry
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—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“The American who has been confined, in his own country, to the sight of buildings designed after foreign models, is surprised on entering York Minster or St. Peter’s at Rome, by the feeling that these structures are imitations also,—faint copies of an invisible archetype.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Margaret Halsey (b. 1910)