All categories Arch Bird Boat Crescent Cross Double crescent Double disc Fish Floriated rod Flower shape Human Lion Personal names Pictish beast Rectangle S-shape Shape Unidentified animal V-rod Wolf All caves Court Cave Doo Cave Jonathan's Cave Sliding cave Well Cave

Carving		Description	Cave	Categories
		Possibly, originally a Pictish beast	Court Cave	Pictish beast, Shape
		Pictish beast and shape	Court Cave	Pictish beast, Shape
		Double disc with floriated rod	Court Cave	Double disc, Floriated rod
		Bird	Court Cave	Bird
		Double disc	Court Cave	Double disc
		Double crescent and Pictish beast	Court Cave	Double crescent, Pictish beast
		Faint double disc and possible crescent with V-rod	Court Cave	Crescent, Double disc, V-rod
		Triangular shapes	Court Cave	Shape
		Triangle linked to circle	Court Cave	Shape
		Triangular shapes	Court Cave	Shape
		Double disc with floriated rod	Court Cave	Double disc, Floriated rod
		Brooch shape	Court Cave	Shape
		Midget cup marks forming a cross shape	Court Cave	Cross
		Sometimes described as brooch shaped	Court Cave	Shape
		Often described as Thor with his hammer and sacred goat	Court Cave	Human
		Birds, an S-shape, unidentified animal and Greek crosses	Doo Cave	Bird, Cross, S-shape, Unidentified animal
		Double disc with Z-rod and animal head	Doo Cave	Double disc, Floriated rod, Unidentified animal
		Pictish beast	Doo Cave	Pictish beast
		Double disc and arches	Doo Cave	Arch, Double disc
		Flower shape	Doo Cave	Flower shape
		Double disc and shapes	Doo Cave	Double disc, Shape
		Double disc and S-shapes	Doo Cave	Double disc, S-shape
		Double discs and rectangle	Doo Cave	Double disc, Rectangle
		Swan or goose	Jonathan's Cave	Bird
		Greek cross	Jonathan's Cave	Cross
		Double disc and unidentified animal	Jonathan's Cave	Double disc, Unidentified animal
		Arch shape	Jonathan's Cave	Shape
		Animal-like shape	Jonathan's Cave	Shape, Unidentified animal
		Triangle and bird-like shape	Jonathan's Cave	Shape
		Animals, birds and shapes	Jonathan's Cave	Bird, Shape, Unidentified animal
		Bird	Jonathan's Cave	Bird
		Faint double discs	Jonathan's Cave	Double disc
		Cannon drawn in 20th century	Jonathan's Cave	Shape
		Leaping salmon	Jonathan's Cave	Fish
		Fish drawn in 20th century	Jonathan's Cave	Fish
		Bird, rectangle, double disc	Jonathan's Cave	Bird, Double disc, Rectangle, Shape
		Wolf or dog	Jonathan's Cave	Wolf
		Double disc and fleur-de-lis shape	Jonathan's Cave	Double disc, Shape
		Often described as a horse or bull	Jonathan's Cave	Lion
		Horse/bull or deer shape	Jonathan's Cave	Unidentified animal
		Pedestalled cross shapes sometimes described as tridents	Jonathan's Cave	Cross
		Pedestalled cross shape sometimes described as a trident	Jonathan's Cave	Cross
		Sometimes described as human shaped	Jonathan's Cave	Shape
		Triangle, deer-like animal shape and circle	Jonathan's Cave	Shape, Unidentified animal
		Damaged cross	Jonathan's Cave	Cross
		Damaged crosses	Jonathan's Cave	Cross
		Damaged cross	Jonathan's Cave	Cross
		Two pedestalled damaged crosses	Jonathan's Cave	Cross
		Greek crosses	Jonathan's Cave	Cross
		Greek crosses	Jonathan's Cave	Cross
		A Greek cross and a swastika form cross	Jonathan's Cave	Cross
		Greek cross	Jonathan's Cave	Cross
		Greek cross	Jonathan's Cave	Cross
		5-oared boat steered by a 6th figure seated in the stern	Jonathan's Cave	Boat
		Double disc	Sliding cave	Double disc
		Rectangle with double disc	Sliding cave	Double disc, Rectangle
		Personal names	Well Cave	Personal names
		Medieval-style cross	Well Cave	Cross

There are no carvings matching this selection.

	Title	Cave
	Who were the Picts? Fife Council Archaeologist Douglas Speirs talks about the Picts, and life at the caves 1500 years ago.
	Standing on the shoulders of giants How antiquarians and archaeologists have studied and recorded the Wemyss caves over the centuries.	Jonathan's Cave
	The Tradition of Handsel Monday Remembering the use of the Well Cave for celebration on the first Monday of the year.	Well Cave
	The Game of Miners' Toss Remembering the gambling that took place in the Court Cave.	Court Cave
	Macduff's Castle The history of the castle that stood on the cliffs above the caves
	East Wemyss and Buckhaven Gasworks The story of the 19th century gasworks which has now eroded into the sea.
	What is RTI? David Strange-Walker gives a rapid introduction to Reflectance Transformation Imaging.
	Fly-around Jonathan's Cave A virtual tour of the 3D point cloud generated from the laser scan.	Jonathan's Cave

All locations Court Cave Doo Cave Gasworks Jonathan's Cave Macduff's Castle Sliding cave

	Image	Location
	Old postcard in front of the Court Cave looking towards East Wemyss, c. 1900. Photo SWACS archives.	Court Cave
	Women carrying baskets of fish taking a rest outside Court Cave, late 19th century. Photo SWACS archives.	Court Cave
	Miners play an illicit game of Toss in the Court Cave in the 1930's. Photo SWACS archives.	Court Cave
	Brick pillars were built to support the Court Cave in 1934. The cave entrance partially collapsed in 1970. Photo SWACS archives.	Court Cave
	Court Cave carvings illustrated by Andrew Gibb. From John Stuart, The Sculptured Stones of Scotland, 1867.	Court Cave
	J. Patrick photograph annotated by J. Romilly Allen of panel in the Court Cave showing 4 double discs and a possible crescent and V-rod, c. 1890. © The British Library Board (37542)	Court Cave
	Annoted rubbing of double discs in Court Cave, J. Romilly Allen, 1890. © The British Library Board (37573)	Court Cave
	Annoted rubbing of crescent and V-rod and double disc in Court Cave, J. Romilly Allen, 1890. © The British Library Board (37573)	Court Cave
	Rubbing of Picitish beast in Court Cave, J. Romilly Allen, 1890. © The British Library Board (37573)	Court Cave
	Rubbing of double crescent and Picitish beast in Court Cave, J. Romilly Allen, 1890. © The British Library Board (37573)	Court Cave
	Annotated rubbing of cupmark cross shape, J. Romilly Allen, 1890. © The British Library Board (37573)	Court Cave
	Annotated rubbing of figure known locally as Thor, J. Romilly Allen, 1890. © The British Library Board (37573)	Court Cave
	The Doo Cave before the collapse of the West Doo Cave in the early 20th century. The blocked entrance dates from when it was used to house pigeons, c. 1900. © Courtesy of RCAHMS (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Collection)	Doo Cave
	Horse and cart on the track between the Court Cave and the Doo Cave, 1940s to 1960s? Photo SWACS archives.	Doo Cave
	West Doo Cave carvings illustrated by James Drummond. From JY Simpson, Notices of Some Ancient Sculptures on the Walls of Caves in Fife, PSAS 1866.	Doo Cave
	West Doo Cave carvings illustrated by Andrew Gibb. From John Stuart, The Sculptured Stones of Scotland, 1867.	Doo Cave
	J. Patrick photograph in J. Romilly Allen's notebooks of Pictish beast and other symbols in the now collapsed West Doo Cave c. 1890. © The British Library Board (37542)	Doo Cave
	J. Patrick photograph annotated by J. Romilly Allen of Pictish beast and other symbols in the now collapsed West Doo Cave c. 1890. © The British Library Board (37542)	Doo Cave
	Double disc, Z-rod and animal head symbol in the now collapsed West Doo Cave. Photograph by John Patrick, 1902. © Courtesy of RCAHMS (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Collection)	Doo Cave
	Annoted rubbing of double disc, Z-rod and animal head symbol in the now collapsed West Doo Cave, 1890 © The British Library Board (37542)	Doo Cave
	J. Patrick photograph in J. Romilly Allen's notebooks of birds, crosses and S-shaped figure in the now collapsed West Doo Cave c. 1890. © The British Library Board (37542)	Doo Cave
	J. Patrick photograph annotated by J. Romilly Allen of birds, crosses and S-shaped figure in the now collapsed West Doo Cave c. 1890. © The British Library Board (37542)	Doo Cave
	Annoted rubbing of flower in collapsed West Doo Cave, J. Romilly Allen, 1890. © The British Library Board (37542)	Doo Cave
	J. Romilly Allen's sketch plan of the collapsed West Doo Cave, 20th May 1890 © The British Library Board (37542)	Doo Cave
	Gasworks in the 1930's. Photo SWACS archives.	Gasworks
	Gasworks at low tide. Early 20th century. Photo SWACS archives.	Gasworks
	Gasworks in 1958 with a football special train from Glasgow Queen St. to Methil in the foreground. Photo W.A.C.Smith, www.buckhaven.info - Information, Steve Chambers.	Gasworks
	Outside Jonathan's Cave, looking towards MacDuff's Castle and doocot. Photograph by John Patrick 1902. © Courtesy of RCAHMS (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Collection)	Jonathan's Cave
	Jonathan's Cave carvings illustrated by James Drummond. From JY Simpson, Notices of Some Ancient Sculptures on the Walls of Caves in Fife, PSAS 1866.	Jonathan's Cave
	Jonathan's Cave carvings illustrated by Andrew Gibb. From John Stuart, The Sculptured Stones of Scotland, 1867.	Jonathan's Cave
	Lost Pictish beasts and birds in Jonathan's Cave illustrated by James Drummond. From JY Simpson, Notices of Some Ancient Sculptures on the Walls of Caves in Fife, PSAS 1866.	Jonathan's Cave
	Lost Pictish beasts and birds in Jonathan's Cave illustrated by Andrew Gibb. From John Stuart, The Sculptured Stones of Scotland, 1867.	Jonathan's Cave
	Rubbing of swan and Pictish beast (destroyed) in Jonathan's Cave, J. Romilly Allen, 1890. © The British Library Board (37573)	Jonathan's Cave
	Lost Pictish beasts and birds in Jonathan's Cave. Photograph by John Patrick 1902. © Courtesy of RCAHMS (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Collection)	Jonathan's Cave
	Horse/lion? in Jonathan's Cave illustrated by James Drummond. From JY Simpson, Notices of Some Ancient Sculptures on the Walls of Caves in Fife, PSAS 1866.	Jonathan's Cave
	Horse/lion? in Jonathan's Cave illustrated by Andrew Gibb From John Stuart, The Sculptured Stones of Scotland, 1867.	Jonathan's Cave
	Annoted rubbing of horse/lion in Jonathan's Cave, J. Romilly Allen, 1890. © The British Library Board (37573)	Jonathan's Cave
	Horse/lion? in Jonathan's Cave. Photograph by John Patrick 1902. © Courtesy of RCAHMS (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Collection)	Jonathan's Cave
	Fish in Jonathan's Cave illustrated by James Drummond. From JY Simpson, Notices of Some Ancient Sculptures on the Walls of Caves in Fife, PSAS 1866.	Jonathan's Cave
	Fish in Jonathan's Cave illustrated by Andrew Gibb. From John Stuart, The Sculptured Stones of Scotland, 1867.	Jonathan's Cave
	Annoted rubbing of fish in Jonathan's Cave, J. Romilly Allen, 1890. © The British Library Board (37573)	Jonathan's Cave
	Photograph in J. Romilly Allen's notebooks of Jonathan's Cave wall showing fish, double disc and fleur de lys, c. 1890. © The British Library Board (37542)	Jonathan's Cave
	Wolf in Jonathan's Cave illustrated by James Drummond. From JY Simpson, Notices of Some Ancient Sculptures on the Walls of Caves in Fife, PSAS 1866.	Jonathan's Cave
	Wolf in Jonathan's Cave illustrated by Andrew Gibb. From John Stuart, The Sculptured Stones of Scotland, 1867.	Jonathan's Cave
	Rubbing of wolf (?) in Jonathan's Cave, J. Romilly Allen, 1890. © The British Library Board (37573)	Jonathan's Cave
	J. Patrick photograph in J. Romilly Allen's notebooks of Jonathan's Cave wall showing wolf and pedestalled crosses c. 1890. © The British Library Board (37542)	Jonathan's Cave
	J. Patrick photograph annotated by J. Romilly Allen of Jonathan's Cave wall showing wolf and pedestalled crosses c. 1890. © The British Library Board (37542)	Jonathan's Cave
	The first image of the Jonathan's Cave boat. Photograph by John Patrick 1902. © Courtesy of RCAHMS (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Collection)	Jonathan's Cave
	An early photo of Macduff's Castle, c. 1870. Photo SWACS archives.	Macduff's Castle
	Macduff's Castle, late 19th or early 20th century. Photo SWACS archives.	Macduff's Castle
	Women working in the field (now the cemetery) behind MacDuff's Castle, c. 1920. Photo SWACS archives.	Macduff's Castle
	Macduff's Castle in 1860. Courtesy of the University of St Andrews Library (ALB-2-210).	Macduff's Castle
	Macduff's Castle, late 19th or early 20th century Photo SWACS archives.	Macduff's Castle
	View from the sea of Macduff's Castle, late 19th or early 20th century. Photo Isabella Fraser, SWACS archives.	Macduff's Castle
	Macduffs Castle from the Wemyss and Buckhaven branch line, late 19th or early 20th century. Photo Isabella Fraser, SWACS archives.	Macduff's Castle
	Sketch of Macduff's Castle, late 19th century. From Macgibbon and Ross, 1892.	Macduff's Castle
	Sketch of Macduff's Castle, late 19th century. From Macgibbon and Ross, 1892.	Macduff's Castle
	Sliding Cave carvings illustrated by Andrew Gibb. From John Stuart, The Sculptured Stones of Scotland, 1867.	Sliding cave
	Rubbing of double disc in Sliding Cave, J. Romilly Allen c. 1890. © The British Library Board (37573)	Sliding cave
	Rubbing of rectangles in Sliding Cave, J. Romilly Allen c. 1890. © The British Library Board (37573)	Sliding cave

These are links to references to the Wemyss Caves that can be found online. For further resources, see the Canmore collections for the Wemyss Caves.

• The Statistical Accounts of Scotland (1791-1845)
• Fife and Kinross Ordnance Survey Name Books (1853-55)
• John Stuart, (1856). The sculptured stones of Scotland Vol 1
• James Young Simpson, (1866). Notices of some ancient sculptures on the walls of caves in Fife, Proceedings of the Royal Society Edinburgh, 5, pp 521-5
• Lieut Col Forbes Leslie, (1866). The Early Races of Scotland and Their Monuments
• John Stuart, (1867). The sculptured stones of Scotland Vol 2
• James Young Simpson, (1867). Archaic sculpturings of cups and circles etc. upon stones and rocks in Scotland, England and other countries
• Christian MacLagan, (1875). Notes on the sculptured caves near Dysart in Fife, illustrated by drawings of the sculptures. PSAS 11, pp 107-20
• John Romilly Allen and Joseph Anderson, (1903). The Early Christian Monuments of Scotland
• John Patrick, (1905). The sculptured caves of East Wemyss Part 1. The reliquary and illustrated archaeologist 11, pp 73-84
• John Patrick, (1905). The sculptured caves of East Wemyss Part 2. The reliquary and illustrated archaeologist 11, pp 249-63
• John Patrick, (1906). The sculptured caves of East Wemyss Part 3. The reliquary and illustrated archaeologist 12, pp 37-47
• George T Flom, (1923). Figures of ships and the four-spoked wheel in ancient Irish Sculpture. American Anthropologist, 25, pp 387-396
• Scheduling of Wemyss Caves and MacDuff's Castle under the Ancient Monuments Act (1937)
• Euan MacKie, (1986). Iron Age and Early Historic Occupation of Jonathan's Cave, East Wemyss. Glasgow Archaeological Journal, 13, 74-77
• Elizabeth le Bon, (1992). The Jonathan's cave boat carving: a question of authenticity. IJNA 21.4 337-42
• Wessex Archaeology (2005). Wemyss Caves, Fife, Scotland: Archaeological Evaluation and Assessment of Results
• Time Team (2005). Picts and Hermits: Cave Dwellers of Fife
• Craig Cessford, (2005). Pictish Art and the Sea, in The Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe
• Catriona Gibson & Chris Stevens, (2007). Iron Age and Pictish activity at Wemyss Caves, Fife. TAFAJVol 13 91-99
• Northlight Heritage (2017). Conservation Management Plan for the Wemyss Caves
• Noble, G., Goldberg, M., & Hamilton, D. (2018). The development of the Pictish symbol system: Inscribing identity beyond the edges of Empire. Antiquity, 92(365)
• The SCAPE Trust (2019). Report of archaeological investigations at the Wemyss Caves July 2019

From here you can download high-resolution versions of the RTI scans of each carving. These are much better quality than we can present on the website, and allow sophisticated control over lighting and filtering.

To view these files, you will need to download and install the free desktop RTI Viewer developed by CHI and available here - culturalheritageimaging.org.

These files are very large, so don't download unless you have the RTI viewer installed. They can not be viewed on iOS or Android devices.

Carving	Description	Link
	Possibly, originally a Pictish beast	W4D-CC-001_5184.ptm
	Pictish beast and shape	W4D-CC-002_5184.ptm
	Double disc with floriated rod	W4D-CC-004_5184.ptm
	Bird	W4D-CC-005_5184.ptm
	Double disc	W4D-CC-006_5184.ptm
	Double crescent and Pictish beast	W4D-CC-007_5184.ptm
	Faint double disc and possible crescent with V-rod	W4D-CC-008_5184.ptm
	Triangular shapes	W4D-CC-009_5184.ptm
	Triangle linked to circle	W4D-CC-010_5184.ptm
	Triangular shapes	W4D-CC-011_5184.ptm
	Double disc with floriated rod	W4D-CC-013_5184.ptm
	Brooch shape	W4D-CC-015_5184.ptm
	Midget cup marks forming a cross shape	W4D-CC-021_5184.ptm
	Sometimes described as brooch shaped	W4D-CC-025_5184.ptm
	Often described as Thor with his hammer and sacred goat	W4D-CC-030_5184.ptm
	Swan or goose	W4D-JC-001_4272.ptm
	Greek cross	W4D-JC-002_4272.ptm
	Double disc and unidentified animal	W4D-JC-004_3872.ptm
	Arch shape	W4D-JC-005_3872.ptm
	Animal-like shape	W4D-JC-006_3872.ptm
	Triangle and bird-like shape	W4D-JC-007_4272.ptm
	Animals, birds and shapes	W4D-JC-009_4272.ptm
	Bird	W4D-JC-012_4272.ptm
	Faint double discs	W4D-JC-013_4272.ptm
	Cannon drawn in 20th century	W4D-JC-014_4272.ptm
	Leaping salmon	W4D-JC-015_4272.ptm
	Fish drawn in 20th century	W4D-JC-016_4272.ptm
	Bird, rectangle, double disc	W4D-JC-017_4272.ptm
	Wolf or dog	W4D-JC-019_4272.ptm
	Double disc and fleur-de-lis shape	W4D-JC-020_4272.ptm
	Often described as a horse or bull	W4D-JC-021_4272.ptm
	Horse/bull or deer shape	W4D-JC-023_4272.ptm
	Pedestalled cross shapes sometimes described as tridents	W4D-JC-024_4272.ptm
	Pedestalled cross shape sometimes described as a trident	W4D-JC-025_4272.ptm
	Sometimes described as human shaped	W4D-JC-026_3848.ptm
	Triangle, deer-like animal shape and circle	W4D-JC-027_4272.ptm
	Damaged cross	W4D-JC-028_4272.ptm
	Damaged crosses	W4D-JC-029_4272.ptm
	Damaged cross	W4D-JC-030_4272.ptm
	Two pedestalled damaged crosses	W4D-JC-031_4272.ptm
	Greek crosses	W4D-JC-032_4272.ptm
	Greek crosses	W4D-JC-033_4272.ptm
	A Greek cross and a swastika form cross	W4D-JC-034_4272.ptm
	Greek cross	W4D-JC-035_4272.ptm
	Greek cross	W4D-JC-036_4272.ptm
	5-oared boat steered by a 6th figure seated in the stern	W4D-JC-037_4272.ptm
	Double disc	W4D-SC-001_6000.ptm
	Rectangle with double disc	W4D-SC-002_6000.ptm

From here you can download a sample of point cloud files stored in the E57 format.

These files are each approximately 1GB in size, so don't download them unless you have appropriate software installed such as Cloud Compare.

The files provided contain the laser scan point clouds for the Doo Cave. Across the entire site, there are 358 separate E57 files totalling 445GB of data. If you would like access to any or all of these scans, please contact The SCAPE Trust. You can also download a full list of all the scans we hold.

File	Description
W4DScan086	Doocave inside entrance
W4DScan087	Doocave inside entrance
W4DScan088	Doocave small side passage
W4DScan089	Doocave small side passage
W4DScan090	Doocave main chamber
W4DScan091	Doocave main chamber
W4DScan092	Doocave main chamber
W4DScan093	Doocave main chamber
W4DScan094	Doocave main chamber
W4DScan095	Doocave main chamber
W4DScan096	Doocave main chamber
W4DScan097	Doocave main chamber

Point clouds created from Photogrammetry and visualised using the Potree WebGL based renderer for large point clouds.

File	Description
Wemyss coastline 2018	Coastline flown in March 2018
Doo Cave	Doo Cave interior 2015