Fife Independents

Fife, a council area and historic county of Scotland, is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire. It has always been a difficult place to reach and this was especially so before the opening of the Forth and Tay road bridges. While historically most bus services were provided by W. Alexander & Sons after they acquired many small businesses from the 1920s onwards, independents survived by working mainly school and miners’ contracts. However, de-regulation in the 1980s allowed a few to register stage services. Well-known names have included Rennie’s, Moffat’s, Williamson’s, Allison’s and, more recently, Bay Travel.


In Fife Independents, David Devoy draws on his wonderful collection of photographs from across the decades to explore the local bus scene from the 1960s to the present day.