GRAIL (formerly KAREL)  , a royal and police burgh of Fifeshire, Scotland, 2 M. from Fife, Ness, the most easterly point of the county, and 11 m . S.E. of St Andrews by the North British railway, but 2 m. nearer by road . Pop . (1901) 1077, It is said to have been a town of some note as early as the 9th century; and its castle, of which there are hardly any remains, was the residence of David I. and other Scottish kings . It was constituted a royal burgh by a charter of Robert Bruce in 1306, and had its privileges confirmed by Robert II. in 1371, by Mary in 1553, and by Charles I. in 1635 . Of its priory, dedicated to CRAMBO St Rufus, a few ruins still exist . The church of Maelrubha, the patron saint of Crail, is an edifice of great antiquity . Many of the ordinary houses are massive and quaint . The public buildings include a library and reading-room and town hall . The chief industries comprise fisheries, especially for crabs, shipping and brewing . It is growing in favour as a summer resort . It unites with St Andrews, the two Anstruthers, Kilrenny, Pittenweem and Cupar in returning one member to parliament .

Balcomie Castle, about 2 M. to the N.E.,

dates from the 14th century . Here Mary of Guise landed in 1538, a few days before her marriage to James V. in St Andrews cathedral . In the 18th century it passed through the hands of various proprietors and was ultimately shorn of much of its original size and grandeur . The East Neuk is a term applied more particularly to the country round Fife Ness, and more generally to all of the peninsula east of an imaginary line drawn from St Andrews to Elie . For fully half the year the cottages of its villages are damp with the haar, or dense mist, borne on the east wind from the North Sea .