Cave festival aims to celebrate ancient history of landmark

A new community festival will celebrate local history later this month.

The Wemyss Caves Community Festival, organised by the Save the Wemyss Ancient Caves Society (SWACS), will take place on Saturday July 21 and has been made possible thanks to a £3,000 Heritage Lottery Fund Sharing Heritage grant.

A number of activities will spread along the site of the caves by the East Wemyss waterfront, including Pictish face painting, children’s archery, stone carving, storytelling, a medieval craft village and scheduled visits to the caves.

There will also be food and retail stalls on site.

Mike Arrowsmith, chairman of SWACS, said: “The festival will be celebrating thousands of years of history at the site and will involve the local community in a range of fun activities.

“We are delighted that HLF have awarded us this grant to help make the festival possible as part of our ambitions to establish the caves as an important attraction and visitor destination in Fife.”

Provost Jim Leishman is due to officially open the free festival at noon.

East Wemyss Senior Citizens’ Hall will also be open and host part of the SWACS collection for a special one-day exhibition, which includes a demonstration of its interactive 4D website, allowing people with limited mobility to digitally explore the ancient caves using their home computers.

The caves are historically precious due to the high number of ancient carvings which are inscribed on their walls.

SWACS works to protect the caves from disruption caused by vandalism and coastal erosion.