Following a motion raised in the Scottish Parliament by David Torrance MSP and supported by other local MSPs, Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop in 2013 instructed Historic Environment Scotland (HES) to convene a working group comprising key partner agencies.
This Wemyss Caves Working Group (WCWG) produced a report in 2014 which was an exhaustive study of all the pressures on the caves and the potential for economic development, tourism, potential management issues and archaeological issues.
Building on this report, a 5-year Conservation Management Plan (CMP) for the site was developed which was agreed last year by HES, ourselves in the Save Wemyss Ancient Caves Society (SWACS), Fife Council, Fife Coast and Countryside Trust (FCCT), Scottish Coastal Archaeology and the Problem of Erosion (SCAPE) and the Wemyss Estate.
After the adoption of the CMP, the WCWG became the Wemyss Caves Action Group and responsibility for convening and chairing it passed to SWACS.
The Wemyss Caves Conservation Management Plan
The Conservation Management Plan can be downloaded here.
The Conservation Management Plan contains an analysis of the condition of the heritage assets and presents an action plan structured around 4 key objectives for their protection, further investigation and sharing, broken down into short-term (1-5 years), long-term (5-10 years) and aspirational actions.
The key objectives are:
- Secure the stability of the caves, carvings and archaeological deposits
- Manage and ensure safe access to the caves and carvings
- Increase knowledge of the character and significance of the cultural heritage at the Wemyss Caves to support their management
- Share and celebrate the heritage of the Wemyss Caves
We report on activities to meet these objectives on our news page and elsewhere on this site.
