Elie or Ely, a small police burgh and a parish on the SE coast of Fife. The town stands close to the shore at the head of a bay of its own name, and has a station on the East of Fife section of the North British, 4 ¾ miles WSW of Anstruther, 14 ENE of Thornton Junction, and 34 NE of Edinburgh. In bygone times a place of some importance, it retains a few antique mansions in a street near the beach, but mainly consists of modern well-built houses. It has for a long time been a place of considerable resort for summer sea-bathing, but carries on little trade, although it possesses an excellent natural harbour, much improved by quays and a pier, and affording safe and accessible shelter during gales from the W or SW. The bay is 7 furlongs wide across the entrance, and thence measures 3 ½ to its inmost recess; it is flanked on the E by Elie Ness, and by Chapel Ness on the W. Wadehaven, a little to the E of the harbour, has a depth of from 20 to. 22 feet of water at ordinary tides, and is said to have been named after General Wade, who recommended it to Government as a suitable harbour for ships of the royal navy. Immediately to the W is the small old burgh of Earlsferry, on whose capital links an elegant golf club-house was lately erected; and Elie itself has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, a branch of the National Bank, 2 hotels, gas-works, water-works (conjointly with Earlsferry and St Monance), a subscription library of 4000 volumes, the parish church (1726; 610 sittings), with a spire, a Free church, and a public school. Having in 1865 adopted the General Police and Improvement Act, it is governed by a chief magistrate, 2 junior magistrates, and 3 other police commissioners, with a town-clerk and a treasurer. Burgh assessable rental (1882) £3804. Pop. (1861) 706, (1871) 626, (1881) 625, of whom 79 were in Kilconquhar parish.
The parish down to about 1639 formed part of Kilconquhar, by a strip of which - 5 furlongs broad at the narrowest - it now is divided into two unequal portions. The larger of these, containing the town, is bounded W and N by Kilconquhar, NE by St Monance, and SE and S by the Firth of Forth, which here has a minimum width of 8 ¼ miles. The smaller or westerly portion is bounded NE and SE by Kilconquhar, and W by Newburn. It has an utmost length and breadth of 9 and 7 ½ furlongs, as the main body has of 2 ¼ and 1 ½ miles; and the area of the whole is 2241 ½ acres, of which 650 ¼ belong to the westerly section, and 210¼ are foreshore. The surface is generally flat, and rises nowhere into a hill. Kilconquhar Loch (4 x 3 furl.) touches the northern boundary of the main body; and Cocklemill Burn traces the south-eastern border of the detached portion. The rocks belong chiefly to the Carboniferous formation, but include, on the coast, greenstone, basalt, clinkstone, and trap-tufa. The carboniferous rocks, too, are traversed by trap-dykes; and they comprise sandstone, limestone, shale, coal, and clay-ironstone. Some 50 acres are under wood; and nearly all the rest of the land, excepting the links, is in tillage. Natives were Robert Traill (1642-1716), a divine of the Church of Scotland, and James Horsburgh, F.R.S. (1762-1836), the eminent hydrographer. Elie House, to the NNE of the town, was built towards the close of the 17th century, and is a large edifice in the Renaissance style, with beautiful grounds. Its owner, William Baird, Esq. (b. 1848; suc. 1864), holds 3120 acres in the shire, valued at £8223 per annum. Elie is in the presbytery of St Andrews and synod of Fife; the living is worth £200. The public school, with accommodation for 112 children, had (1880) an average attendance of 94, and a grant of £83, 10s. Valuation (1866) £6136, (1882) £7234, 9s. Pop. (1801) 730, (1831) 1029, (1861) 826, (1871) 775, (1881) 670.—Ord. Sur., sh. 41, 1857.
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