Fife heritage group gains council support to unearth the past

The Leslie Heritage Trust will begin the archaeological dig this September after Glenrothes area committee councillors supported the project with £8,400 from the local community recovery fund on Wednesday.

The other half of the money will come from an external organisation.

“The money we have agreed to give today will allow for an archaeological excavation at the site and should give the whole community a chance to glimpse into Leslie’s past,” Councillor Craig Walker, convenor of the Glenrothes Area Committee, said.

He added: “And personally, I think it’s really quite an interesting project.”

The Leslie Heritage Trust will start by digging a 5 by 5 metre trench on the Northeast quadrant of the Christ’s Kirk Green. The work will continue to progress over a four week period.

It is hoped that the dig will unveil some of the village’s ancient history and reveal more about Leslie’s local heritage.

“It is hoped that the dig will uncover the footprint of an early mediaeval church that gave the area its name before it became Leslie,” a committee report explained. “Like many ancient sites the documents are not crystal clear but there is written evidence that supports religious settlement on the Greenside from at least the 10th century.”

Councillors were told that these ancient texts seem to suggest that the mediaeval wooden church was “somehow notable”.

However, councillors were also told that the process of planning the archaeological dig is “as crucial and beneficial to the community of Leslie as any results from the dig itself”.

“Leslie Heritage Group with the support of Community Learning and Development aim to ensure maximum opportunity for local people to observe, participate, celebrate, and capitalise on this event,” the committee report stated.

Although there have been other archaeological digs in other parts of Fife, it’s the first dig scheduled for the village of Leslie.

“I think this is a really exciting project,” Councillor John Beare (SNP for Glenrothes North, Leslie and Markinch) said. “The last significant archaeological dig in this area was at Falkland Hill, and a huge amount of attention was generated by it.”

Cllr Walker explained that the Leslie Heritage Group was formed a couple of years ago in response to feedback from the local community which showed residents had a “strong sense of local heritage, and an interest in understanding more about local heritage.”

A main objective of the trust has since been to “establish and better understand the early mediaeval foundations of the Town – which this dig hopes to accomplish.

At the end of the excavation, there will be “no trace” of the archaeological works, and a photographic exhibition will be hosted at Leslie Library to detail the dig and any of its findings.