Talk:Inverkeithing

/* Landmarks */ - Update about old primary school (fire)

Hi, is it OK that I updated the page regarding the recent fire at the old primary school? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C5:3C16:5500:E8D5:9C87:9C7B:B483 (talk) 17:09, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

Idea for better headings.

Hi all, I have an idea for better headings on this page as currently there are some issues with the scope of headings - let me know if this seems useful as it would help with me putting in my information on the town I have collected while writing a book; of any alternative ideas or if you want to keep it the same. If there is any reason anyone could find these controversial let me know.

Proposed changes:

Geography to include subheadings for climate (and abolish seperate heading for this) and recreation areas.

History to place text about medieval under medieval subheading and not leave it under Roman subheading.

Demography to include a subheading on religion, with a list of Inverkeithing's churches.

Culture and sport to become community and sport to better reflect this, with subheadings for football, Inverkeithing bowling club, and the highland games as these are very different things.

Education to be renamed Public Services so it can include education, healthcare and police subheadings.

and a new section on Economy as a place to discuss the town's high street and commuting nature. Harrybean07 (talk) 02:06, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

There are 3 more outstanding issues I would like to solve, and am seeking discussion on:

Firstly, the introductory paragraph is long and should be split where it begins talking about history, beginning "A town of ancient origin..". I have tried to do this twice and it has been reverted twice so can I hear why one would object to this? It would make the article less clunky.

Secondly, there is a section in formatting where a coat of arms can be put in for a town, as is standard with many towns and cities. Inverkeithing has a coat of arms. Would anyone object with me putting Inverkeithing's coat of arms here?

Thirdly, I would like to change the title picture to a multiple photo picture - like Edinburgh's wiki page - which still includes the original but perhaps a couple of new ones of the actual town itself too. Harrybean07 (talk) 02:22, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

Doubts about car charging claim

The Inverkeithing page claims

Inverkeithing is the most electric vehicle friendly commuter town in the UK (2025). The town has 24 EV charging stations, 42% of which are rapid or ultra-rapid chargers. The train station also has EV charging.

But when I look at the source it says

Inverkeithing scored 92.5 out of 100, with 12 chargers for every 5,000 people in the town. With a population of 10,000, the town has 24 charging destinations, 42 per cent of which have rapid or ultra-rapid chargers available.

Inverkeithing does not have a population of anything like 10,000 which makes me question the claim. I can think of maybe 10 chargers in the town - where are the other 14? I was wondering if @Harrybean07 knows? Smithberry (talk) 09:29, 2 March 2025 (UTC)

Hi Smithberry, interesting question. This information was all from Dunfermline Press who I believe to be a reliable source but you're right that Inverkeithing's population is nothing like 10,000. I can only think they've added in North Queensferry too? Harrybean07 (talk) 00:27, 11 March 2025 (UTC)

I'd say Dunfermline Press is generally reliable, but the bigger problem is that I cannot find the report by fleet company Zenith that they are referencing. In fact, all I can find online are other news outlets reporting on their own towns' numbers. I'll do some more digging, but if we cannot locate the original source and the numbers don't make complete sense, then we should be conservative and take the claim out. — Arcaist ^{(contr—talk)} 11:03, 11 March 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for the replies - I also had a look for the original study but didn't find it. I'll wait to see what you can find, but I agree that if we can't find the primary source it would be better to remove the claim. It is likely to be out-of-date at some unknown time in the future, so would be hard to maintain. Smithberry (talk) 16:17, 11 March 2025 (UTC)

From reading other sources that note Inverkeithing as the most EV friendly town, these sources point to Inverkeithing having 12 charging stations per 5,000 pop. which is accurate. It seems Dunfermline Press thought Inverkeithing had 10,000 people and so doubled this number. I have removed any statistics, so it now just reads that this was claimed about Inverkeithing. The stat on the train station having EV charging as well as percent of fast chargers remains accurate. Harrybean07 (talk) 17:55, 12 March 2025 (UTC)

Article needs editing for excessive detail

The article has grown a lot this year, and I appreciate the work @Harrybean07 has done. However, at the moment I think the amount of detail is excessive - at over 100,000 bytes, the article is half is big as Edinburgh itself. I also don't think we need details on absolutely every aspect of the town, such as which classes run in the community centre, parking locations, lots and lots of "notable" residents, and many sections with headings but only 1-2 sentences of content.

Not every detail is of encyclopedic value (see WP:NOTDIRECTORY), and its current state makes the page hard to navigate, not to speak of the work to keep all this updated. I would thus suggest a little drive to edit the page and focus the information. If anyone has concerns about this, please share them here. — Arcaist ^{(contr—talk)} 11:05, 26 October 2025 (UTC)

Hi, I have deleted 1,500 bytes worth to focus the information now. Harrybean07 (talk) 17:08, 26 October 2025 (UTC)

I tried removing some duplicated information, and some information which did not seem noteworthy, but my changes were all reverted. It feels like this is becoming a personal project. Smithberry (talk) 17:17, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks @Smithberry, I saw your edits, and at least I appreciated the effort. @Harrybean07, it's very much not okay to simply revert all these edits without discussion or explanation (you didn't even leave an edit summary). If you fundamentally disagree with the direction of a page, the proper way is to find consensus on the talk page first. You're lucky yesterday's edits don't count as a breach of the three-revert rule (WP:3RR), if only because there were no intervening edits.

Let's find a way to decide what to include, and what not to, instead of just reverting. — Arcaist ^{(contr—talk)} 09:56, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

Hi all, apologies for this, you are both right I should not have reverted edits without discussing. I have gone back and made the cuts to transport and education and services sections you originally made.

The reason I reverted the edits here was because I felt a mention of Inverkeithing medical practice was relevant and also the long distance footpaths are an important feature of the town so I thought they should be kept where they were, and found it easier to revert then as you had done remove everything else other than this. I'm taking a break from editing now to get the hang of it, apologies again to you both who have put in a lot of effort to make this page better. Anything like this again and I will of course consult the talk page.

Cheers, Harry. Harrybean07 (talk) 19:40, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

p.s. also true to your edits the climate section is still deleted as are duplicate references to the quarry. Harrybean07 (talk) 20:05, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks! I do agree the long distance footpaths are an important feature of the town, but it gets mentioned 3 or 4 times and I thought we could probably reduce this. I'll not rush to make further changes, and I'll spread them out so that people have time to consider them individually. Smithberry (talk) 13:33, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

Let's find a way to decide what to include, and what not to
— User:Arcaist

I think it would be good to have some sort of discussion on that, as to me much of the article feels like trivia, but it is obviously important to others to collect lots of references to the town. I know there is some guidance here about Encyclopedic content and about not being a travel guide, but I'm not sure how we decide what is suitable for an encyclopedia. Smithberry (talk) 10:23, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

Since St Peter's Church and Inverkeithing Friary have their own pages now, how about I migrate information from this article on to their own pages and remove most of it from our main article? Not entirely though as these are very notable features of the town. Harrybean07 (talk) 16:26, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

I think that makes sense - no point in duplicating information (as it makes it hard to maintain) and having separate articles should be easier for readers. Smithberry (talk) 16:35, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

The article, I think, still has around 90,000 characters. I am reluctant to start editing again without any agreement, as I don't want to start a war. These are points for discussion. A few places I think could be trimmed are:

• remove the "Townscape" section - the summary has already covered some of this, and it feels like way too much detail
• In the Landscape section
  • remove this observation:
    • "The vantage point from the town centre across the Firth of Forth is to Edinburgh and the Pentland Hills."
  • remove excessive detail and repetition of information given elsewhere:
    • "The Keithing Burn is a small river that flows through Inverkeithing. Its source is forest plantations to the northeast of the town between Dalgety Bay and Aberdour. The burn flows past the railway junction, before falling into the Inner Bay of Inverkeithing Bay 1⁄4 mi (400 m) south of the town centre at Inverkeithing Harbour.[22] The Inner Bay of Inverkeithing is an inlet of Inverkeithing Bay, a bay of the Firth of Forth."
  • remove detail about things outwith the town:
    • "Ecologically, Inverkeithing is adjacent to three sites of special scientific interest (SSSI): Carlingnose Point Nature Reserve to the south, the Firth of Forth to the east and St Margaret's Marsh to the southwest"
• Letham Hill is mentioned three times - I would suggest leaving just the reference in the Landscape section.
• remove references to the beaches - the beaches are minor (compared to, for instance, Aberdour or Burntisland) and the one referred to as Inverkeithing Bay beach is adjacent to St David's Harbour housing and so is it really part of part of Inverkeithing town?
• remove "Outdoor landmarks" - much of this is referenced elsewhere in the article or is of minor interest.
• in "Local community" remove this paragraph - it is not particularly significant that Inverkeithing has pharmacies, for instance, and "ranked as the top property hotspot in Fife in 2024 " is surely just part of the natural ebb and flow of house prices :
  • Inverkeithing town centre provides the local area with a variety of services including a Post Office, pharmacies, bakeries, pubs, restaurants, and hairdressers, and has the lowest number of vacant shops among all Fife town centres (2022).[139][140][141] Inverkeithing was ranked as the top property hotspot in Fife in 2024 by ESPC. Inverkeithing was placed at number 2 in the list of "Edinburgh's best commuter towns 2025: The 12 best places to live just outside of Edinburgh".
• In "Education and services" remove these paragraphs - the information is true for a wide number of towns and villages so not specific to Inverkeithing, the the fact there is a doctor's surgery (and its location) and not of great interest:
  • Post high school education can take place at Fife College's nearby Rosyth campus.[154] The closest universities to Inverkeithing are Herriot Watt and the University of Edinburgh.
  • Inverkeithing is served by Inverkeithing Medical Group, an NHS practice; the surgery is located just off Inverkeithing high street.
• In "Transport"
  • remove Citylink reference as I don't think any Citylink services run from Ferrytoll (happy to be proved wrong on that)
  • And remove this doubtful reference; I think all the Inverkeithing public charging is the slow 7kW variety (compare with Dalgety Bay which has many more charging points and they are typically in excess of 20kW):
    • Inverkeithing has been named the most electric vehicle friendly commuter town in the UK (2025).

Smithberry (talk) 16:58, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for the way you have suggested changes! It is great to see now that the Inverkeithing page is smaller than many other Fife towns, and is half the size of Glenrothes for example.

In transport, I agree with all your proposed changes.

In education and services, I agree with all your proposed changes – except simply keeping the words “Inverkeithing is served by Inverkeithing Medical Group, an NHS practice ”, as it has been a longstanding and important part of the town for many decades, and some of towns don’t have their own medical group, so I think is notable in Education and Services for simply a short sentence.

In local community, I agree with all your proposed changes.

For outdoor landmarks, this is very short and clearly most of what is mentioned are relevant as places of interest. But I agree this heading can be removed and included with Other Landmarks, and the words tightened up.

The beaches are small, but are both within the official boundary of Inverkeithing, and so I agree just one mention in just one sentence would suffice.

I agree Letham Hill should not be double mentioned in the Geography section.

In the townscape section, as the page covers Inverkeithing as a whole, it is surely therefore relevant to mention towns that are near contiguous to Inverkeithing. In general, just because the summary includes information like the distances to the two major nearby cities, this does not mean it should be excluded from the relevant section. If so, this would make sections incomplete of the most important details. I agree the distance to South Queensferry and Edinburgh airport is excessive detail and should be removed.

In the landscape section, I agree about the removal of the vantage point. The information about the Keithing Burn is surely relevant to a town named after it, but absolutely some of the information here is excessive detail so should be cut.

Finally, I do believe just one short sentence on the fact that Inverkeithing is adjacent to 3 SSSI’s is relevant (like how other towns mention immediately nearby SSSI’s). Harrybean07 (talk) 12:10, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

@Harrybean07 I imagined there would be a discussion and I would then make any agreed edits. I did not imagine you would decide what was allowed and make the changes. This is not your personal project. Smithberry (talk) 13:58, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

Better readability for the History section.

Hi, I have a proposal for the history section: since we now have a Timeline of Inverkeithing page, we could improve the readability of the history section by grouping historical topics in a semi chronological order, as we do not need to stick to strict chronology now. The current headings by century make the article mixed up, and mean sequential events are separated.

Perhaps new sections could be: "Ancient origins", "Medieval era", "early modern era" (containing the Battle of Inverkeithing"), "Industrial Revolution in Inverkeithing" and "the modern era". Harrybean07 (talk) 02:21, 3 December 2025 (UTC)

I'm not an expert on Wikipedia. To me, the timeline seems like a lot of detail for a small town, but maybe that is the way it is done. The near-constant rearranging of the text (around 50 changes in the last 2 weeks) means I have kind of given up thinking about improving it. Smithberry (talk) 13:23, 3 December 2025 (UTC)