Walking is our main way of getting exercise but you get a wee bit fed up going to the same places all the time, so a couple of Saturdays ago we ended up going to East Wemyss (pronounced Weems) just for a change of scenery. Actually we started off in West Wemyss then went on to Coaltown of Wemyss and ended up at East Wemyss which is the location of the Pictish caves which are generally known as the Wemyss caves.

This is all part of the Fife Coastal Path as you can see from the map board. This area was mined for coal until quite recently and linen was also made here.

The photo below is of the side of a rock face on the shore, but it isn’t solid rock, there’s a cave behind it, with the cave mouth facing out to the sea.

THis is the cave which is in the rock and it’s one of a series of caves which were in use as long ago as Pictish times. There is some cave painting in some of them and it’s thought that they were not used as homes but were more likely workshops, possibly for people working with silver. The cave is actually much bigger than it looks here, it’s a deep and very high cavern. Apparently the Picts had warmer, drier homes nearby, which is just as well because as these ones are right by the sea they would have been very draughty and absolutely freezing at the best of times.

This is one of the smaller caves but it isn’t so easy to get to as it’s quite high up on a bank.

And the photos below are of the view which they had from the caves, I don’t suppose it will have changed much in the thousand years or so since the Picts inhabited the place.

You can just see the Bass Rock on the left in the photo below if you click on it to enlarge it. The rock is home to thousands of seabirds, and nearer the middle is North Berwick Law.

Time Team had a dig around the area a few years ago and if you’re interested you can see photos of what they got up to here.