Sometimes the "bookmarks toolbar items" get dragged to another toolbar. If you use the Customize option, can you find it and drag it back?

Alt+v (opens the View menu) > Toolbars > Customize

If you prefer, you can discard your toolbar customizations and return to the default setup. This may be necessary if the problem is a corrupted settings file.

(1) Open your personal settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder

Help > Troubleshooting Information > "Show Folder" button

(2) Switch back to Firefox and exit the program (e.g., File > Exit)

(3) Wait a few moments for Firefox to finish updating files in your settings folder, then rename localstore.rdf to something else, like localstore-bad.rdf or localstore.old. Alternately, you can delete the file.

(4) You're done with your profile folder and you can restart Firefox now.

Thanks for this.

Strangely, my bookmarks toolbar came back on its own this morning after I reinstated my double monitor - I had had to use a single monitor for a while and actually now that I think about it the problem may have co-incided.

Incidentally, I had tried restoring default settings, but couldn't drag the Bookmarks toolbar items because that didn't seem to be a menu item - I only had the bookmarks icon.

Thanks very much,

Lizzie