What lies beneath: team in medieval church hope

SOME CUTTING-EDGE archaeological science has located a buried structural anomaly in Saline old village cemetery that experts believe may be evidence of the very first church on the site.

With the assistance and permission of Fife Council, the project, organised by Linda Moyes and the community, the Edinburgh Field Archaeological Society undertook a detailed geophysical ground-resistance survey across the entire old graveyard area.

By passing an electric current through the ground and measuring the resistance to the flow of the current, archaeologists were able to map a variety of buried features without any ground disturbance.

The objective was to find the site of the old church — demolished in the late 18th Century — but a more intriguing result was returned. Lying in the south-east corner of the cemetery, a small, twincelled rectangular building was identified that has all the hallmarks of an early medieval church.

Project leader Linda Moyes said: “Although we can’t be sure that this is Saline’s earliest church, all the signs strongly suggest that it is.”

Douglas Speirs, Fife Council’s archaeologist, added: “The results of the survey are extremely encouraging. We have to consider exactly what this stone-built, sub-rectangular building could be. Given its form, size and location, an early medieval church of 8th-11th Century date has to be a possibility.”

There are plans to take the work further and a small-scale archaeological excavation is being planned. The objective of the excavation would be to definitively identify and date the buried building and shed new light on the very earliest origins of the village.

Charlie and Joan Mitchell of Ravenscraig in Kirkcaldy celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary. They were presented with a bouquet by Kirkcaldy councillor Kay Carrington.