North Queensferry

North Queensferry is a historic coastal village in Fife, Scotland, situated on the Firth of Forth, 9 mi (14 km) from Edinburgh city centre. Located on the North Queensferry Peninsula, it is the southernmost settlement in Fife.

The town derives its name from the ferry service established by Queen Margaret in the 11th century; the prefix North serves to distinguish it from South Queensferry, on the opposite shore of the Forth. The Forth Rail Bridge (1890), the Forth Road Bridge (1964) and the Queensferry Crossing (2017) all meet the Fife coast at North Queensferry.

North Queensferry is bounded by two sites of special scientific interest: Carlingnose Point Wildlife Reserve and St Margaret's Marsh. The town lies on Fife Pilgrim Way and Fife Coastal Path, one of Scotland's Great Trails.

Today, the village is a tourist destination, home to 43 listed buildings by Historic Scotland. The village has a population of 1,076 (2011), with a significant share working in nearby Edinburgh. Notable present and former residents include Prime Minister Gordon Brown and author Iain Banks.

The village takes its name from Saint Margaret of Scotland, the wife of King Malcolm III of Scotland, who is said to have established the village to ensure regular ferry crossings across the Firth of Forth for the benefit of pilgrims travelling to St Andrews. Margaret is said to have made her arrival in Scotland here in 1068, and to have regularly used the ferry crossing when travelling between the then capital Dunfermline, and Edinburgh Castle. From around this time, the crossing became known as the Queen's Ferry.

Margaret died in 1093 and made her final journey by ferry to Dunfermline Abbey, where she remains buried. Her son, David I of Scotland, awarded the ferry rights to the abbey.

A settlement was likely around the present site of the village long before Margaret's time. The site of the village, on the narrowest part of the Firth of Forth, with added advantage of the island of Inchgarvie in between, suggests that it was the natural point of crossing and a vital link to the north of Scotland for centuries before the Queen's Ferry was established.

North Queensferry over the centuries remained a small community, with a population of probably no more than 600, and it never achieved the status of burgh like many of the nearby settlements. Yet the numbers passing through the village daily were huge. From noblemen to commoners, from Kings to cattle, all had to use the Queen's Ferry to cross the Forth. It is recorded that Mary, Queen of Scots, used the ferry on the day she was transported to Lochleven Castle where she was imprisoned in 1567.