Visit Glenrothes Places

Welcome to Visit Glenrothes Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Glenrothes

  

Glenrothes Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Glenrothes

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Glenrothes history

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Toponymy

Rothes comes from association with the Earl of Rothes, of the Leslie family from Northeast Scotland . This family historically owned much of the land on which Glenrothes has been built, and gave its name to the adjacent village of Leslie . “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 .

Glenrothes new town

Glenrothes was designated in 1948 under the New Towns Act 1946 as Scotland’s second post-war new town . The planning, development, management and promotion of the new town was the responsibility of a quango appointed by the Secretary of State for Scotland . The corporation board consisted of eight members including a chairman and deputy chairman .

Industrial heritage

Before Glenrothes was developed, the main industries in the area were papermaking, coal mining and farming . The papermills established along the banks of the River Leven which provided energy to power their operations .

Cadco Scandal

Cadco Development Ltd announced they were bringing 2,000 jobs to Glenrothes in 1963 . They were going to take three factories on the Queensway Industrial Estate; open pig breeding units at Whitehill; and build a supermarket in the town centre .

Silicon Glen

Glenrothes was appointed as an economic focal point for Central Scotland as part of a Regional Plan for economic growth and development . The town also replaced Cupar as the HQ of Fife Regional Council in the 1970s .

Post-Glenrothes Development Corporation

Glenrothes continues to serve as Fife’s principal administrative centre and serves a wider sub-regional area as a major centre for services and employment . By 1995 the GDC had left a lasting legacy on the town by overseeing the development of over 15,000 houses, 5,174,125 square feet of industrial floorspace .

Glenrothes economy & business

Manufacturing and engineering industries

The 2011 Census showed that manufacturing accounted for almost 15% of employment in Glenrothes . In 2015 this amounted to over 4,000 jobs in the local area, or almost a third of all manufacturing jobs in Fife .

Retail, leisure and service sectors

The majority of shopping, retail services and administrative facilities in Glenrothes are concentrated in the town centre (central business district) With approximately 120 shop units the Kingdom Centre provides the largest concentration of retail and services . Retail jobs accounted for approximately 11% of the total number of jobs in the local economy in 2011 .

Public and voluntary sectors

A number of public service and third sector agencies and authorities are based in Glenrothes . Fife Council is a major employer in the locality with its prominent local authority headquarters building located in the town centre . Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Scottish Enterprise and Kingdom Housing Association, a major Registered Social Landlord also have offices .

Regeneration and future development

A range of development projects are proposed to regenerate the town centre . A masterplan was approved by the Glenrothes Area Committee in March 2021 . This seeks to address a variety of negative trends including a loss of retailers and a halving of office floorspace since 2000 . The plan also seeks to reduce the dominance of car parks and road traffic .

Glenrothes landmarks

The River Leven Bridge spans Riverside Park and carries the town’s Western Distributor Road. It was the first reinforced-concrete cable-stayed structure ever built in the UK. The bridge was designed by Dundee-based Nicoll Russell Studios, Architects.

Glenrothes geography / climate

Glenrothes lies 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. Kirkcaldy, a former royal burgh, port and industrial town is the next nearest large settlement located approximately 7 miles (11 km) to the south.

Built environment and urban form

Careful consideration was given to the form and infrastructure of the town, focusing on the creation of individual suburban type neighbourhoods (precincts) Separating industry from housing areas in planned industrial estates was a key element of early plans .

Geology

Geology is predominantly made up of glacial deposits with subsoil largely consisting of boulder clay . Productive coal measures were largely recorded in the southern parts of Glenrothes, approximately south of the B921 Kinglassie road .

You can visit Glenrothes places with Walkfo Glenrothes to hear history at Glenrothes’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Glenrothes has 16 places to visit in our interactive Glenrothes map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Glenrothes, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Glenrothes places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Glenrothes & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 16 audio facts unique to Glenrothes places in an interactive Glenrothes map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Glenrothes Places Map
16 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Glenrothes historic spots	Glenrothes tourist destinations	Glenrothes plaques	Glenrothes geographic features
Walkfo Glenrothes tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Glenrothes

  

Best Glenrothes places to visit

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Glenrothes has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Glenrothes’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Glenrothes’s information audio spots:

Riverside Park, Glenrothes Riverside Park is a town park situated in the town of Glenrothes, Fife . The park has pleasant woodland walks, floral gardens, a pond and recently an Arboretum has been planted .

Leslie House Leslie House in Leslie, Fife was the largest and earliest Restoration house in Fife, Scotland . Sir Robert Spencer Nairn acquired the house in 1919 and donated it to the Church of Scotland in 1952 . Several of the buildings are listed .

Visit Glenrothes plaques