Long before SWACS was founded in 1986, a number of individuals played an important role in recording and trying to protect the caves. One of the most significant was Kirkcaldy architect George Deas, who in the first half of the last century strived to preserve the site and bring it to wider public attention.
In 1929, while foundations were being laid for a new boiler house at the Michael Colliery, a unknown cave was discovered – on the wall of which was an ancient cup and ring carving. These are usually found on large open expanses of rock or standing stones and thought to be between 3,000 and 5,000 years old. Sadly, the cave was subsequently filled with concrete – but not before Deas took a plaster cast which is now held by Fife museum services.
Last week our archivist Pam Cranston and Chair Mike Arrowsmith visited the Fife Museums collections store to make a digital model of this lost carving. Knowing that that Deas had made other casts at the caves, they took the opportunity while there to examine and make models of these too.
In addition to the cup and ring are three more plaster casts made in 1931, all Pictish carvings from Jonathan’s Cave (a horse, a wolf or another horse, and early Christian crosses) plus a fibreglass cast made in 1951 of the human figure in Court Cave passage.
Deas and other writers at the time suggested that this latter carving was Viking, but it is now thought to be much older and likely to be a warrior god known from Roman Britain and the only such figure in Scotland. There is also a fibreglass cast of the horse, made by archaeologists in 1980.
We are extremely grateful to OnFife (Kirkcaldy Galleries), on behalf of Fife Council, for granting permission to make these models. They will be invaluable to us, as until now we had only a photograph of the lost cup and ring carving. The other casts are much closer to the original form of the carvings, most of which were badly damaged in the later 20th century.
Our next step is to 3D-print our models so visitors can see (and touch) them at our museum.