Set on a rocky headland in the East Neuk, between two of the best sandy beaches in Scotland, the property is backed by a golf course on its other two sides.

Craigforth’s garden gate opens straight out onto the Fife Coastal Path, and the house is a few minutes’ walk to the picturesque villages of Earlsferry and Elie.

The designation of cottage belies the property’s size. It boasts five bedrooms and four bathrooms, including a vast master suite with a dressing room. There is a flexible layout over two floors, with a dining room, dining-kitchen, two good-sized sitting rooms, plus a conservatory, a self-contained office, and extra rooms such as a snug, a games room, and a utility.

Craigforth Cottage, Chapel Green, Earlsferry, Fife. Image: DTXimages

Craigforth started life as something much more humble and has grown over the years, says current owner Sue Griffiths.

She and her late husband, Peter, took it on 20 years ago, although his family have an association with the site that goes back to the 1940s, when his grandparents bought the big house adjacent along with some associated outbuildings.

Sue explains: “This house was built in the 1890s and had always been a gardener’s cottage, with stables, a tack room and a hay loft attached.

“When we moved in we just gradually converted that utility space to accommodation, so the cottage kind of grew, but always kept its quaint garden feel.”

The couple ran a holiday home firm together, The East Fife Letting Company, so one of the first adaptations to the old cottage was to make a home office in a wing that previously housed a storeroom.

To this day, it has its own separate entrance, so any business visitors don’t have to traipse through the house.

The next major project, in 2012, was to extend the house upwards with a loft conversion. Sue says: “The garden is huge and surrounded by a high stone wall, which is great for privacy – but adding the upstairs gave us the view of the sea.”

The outlook, over a rocky promontory and across to the Capital, is stunning so, as well as extra bedrooms, the couple added a sitting room, the games room, and the snug on the first floor, with double doors to a small outside space to make the most of the view.

Keen to keep the cottage feel the new floor draws on some of the original features elsewhere. Sue recalls: “When creating the stairwell for access, we kept the crossbeams to make a galleried hallway. It was really important to retain its integrity with regards its age, and the fact it used to be a gardener’s cottage.

“But now you can sit on the balcony upstairs at Hogmanay and watch the fireworks in Edinburgh.”

At other times of the year, the view is best taken from inside. Sue observes: “It is endlessly interesting, although it can get a bit wild in winter, but it just feels like you are seeing such big sky – there are phenomenal sunrises and sunsets all year round.”

As for passing traffic, it is of the maritime variety. Sue says: “In the summer, you see cruise ships going by and there is the odd wind turbine being towed by tug boats out to sea. There are still fishing boats setting out and lobster boats on the bay.

“First thing in the morning, I can hear the birds – our garden birds are often joined by curlews – but you can also hear the seals. They are easier to hear than to see, because they are well camouflaged on the rocks. It is an eerie sound, but I find it cathartic.

“The only other noise pollution I can claim is the odd dinging of the all-clear bell from the tenth green of the golf course. We are that close.”

Craigforth Cottage, Chapel Green, Earlsferry, Fife, is priced at offers over £1.5m,

For more information, contact Savills on 0131 247 3738.

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