Free, unheated and cleared out by local swimmers in 2021, a rock-cut sea pool below the St Monans windmill
Open accessfree and open all year; no lifeguards or facilities, so check the tide and wear shoes on the rocks
East of the harbour at St Monans, on the stretch of shore called the Salt Pans, a pool has been hewn out of the rocks and closed in with man-made walls. After some 40 years of neglect, a group of locals had cleared the pool out by early 2021, and people now swim there every day. The sea covers the pool at high tide and refills it, so the water is as cold as the sea beside it. Swimming is free, but the pool isn’t officially maintained and there are no lifeguards or facilities, so you swim at your own risk; check the tide and wear shoes on the rocks. Just above the pool stands St Monans windmill, which once pumped seawater to the old salt pans, and the Fife Coastal Path runs past. Two more restored pools lie north-east along the coast, Pittenweem’s tidal pool just over 1km away and Cellardyke’s about 5km away.
