Escape The Ship Inn

Its walls came tumbling down, and its ceilings – now Elie’s iconic seaside pub has opened up with a fresh new interior and a focus on good food

 

- Gillian Welsh

They took the plunge and it paid off. For Rachel and Graham Bucknall, Elie was where they met and a place Rachel has known all her life, since her parents bought a house here in 1964. Having taken over the Bridge Inn in Ratho and breathed new life into it, the Bucknalls felt they could do the same for the Ship Inn, Elie’s iconic pub. With a beach, water sports and that enviable East Neuk microclimate, the seaside town is a big pull for day-trippers and holiday-makers, especially in summer when numbers quadruple to 4,000.

The beach-fronted Ship Inn is a focal point all year round, for locals and visitors alike. Now, with its extended restaurant, with an emphasis on beautifully prepared Scottish ingredients, and six New England-styled en-suite bedrooms, it is no longer just a pub, but an inn with rooms.

Reaching this point has taken a lot of hard graft. The alterations were radical, with every room in the 18th century building changed in some way. Architect James Pask had a job on his hands, as nothing had been touched for over 20 years.

The bar’s walls were knocked down and its  floor was dug down to about six feet so the foundations could be rebuilt (they’d been constructed on running sand). All the ceilings were pulled down and the rafters exposed.