Alexander Selkirk - Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland - Childhood Homes on Waymarking.com

The village of Lower Largo lies on the Firth of Forth coast of Fife in eastern Scotland, and is most famous for being the birthplace of Alexander Selkirk, the seafarer who would voluntarily become a castaway for four years on a south sea island and inspire the creation of Robinson Crusoe.

Selkirk was born in a cottage on Main Street in Lower Largo in 1776, the son of a shoemaker and tanner. An unruly child who was often in trouble, Selkirk's calling was the nearby sea and he soon became a mariner.

In 1704 he sailed on the Cinque Port on a gold mining expedition off the west coast of South America. Deriding the ship as unseaworthy, he voluntarily became marooned on one of the Juan Fernandez Islands, and lived as a castaway for four years and four months until his rescue by the privateer, Woodes Rogers. The Cinque Ports, shortly after his exit, became grounded, thus proving him right about its seaworthiness.

After news of his experience became known, the novelist Daniel Defoe, based his literary character, Robinson Crusoe on Selkirk. The cottage in Lower Largo is now widely known as the Robinson Crusoe House.

In 1885 on December 11th, a statue by Thomas Stuart Burnett was unveiled in a niche above the doors of the house by Lady Aberdeen in a ceremony. The statue depicts Selkirk in loincloth and carrying tools and weapons, looking out to sea awaiting rescue. A plaque underneath has the following inscription:

'IN MEMORY OF ALEXANDER SELKIRK MARINER, THE ORIGINAL OF ROBINSON CRUSOE WHO LIVED ON THE ISLAND OF JUAN FERNANDEZ IN COMPLETE SOLITUDE FOR FOUR YEARS AND FOUR MONTHS, HE DIED 1723, LEUITENANT(sic) OF H.M.S WEYMOUTH AGED 47 YEARS. THIS STATUE IS ERECTED BY DAVID GILLIES, NET MANUFACTURER ON THE SITE OF THE COTTAGE IN WHICH SELKIRK WAS BORN.'