Seeing History through a SCHARPer Lens; exploring the Wemyss Caves through community film making
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 30/04/2017

Since 2012, SCAPE has worked with citizen scientists and local community volunteers on the Scotland’s Coastal Heritage at Risk Project (SCHARP), a four year project designed to record and interpret archaeological sites around Scotland’s dynamic coastline. One project was undertaken at the Wemyss Caves, home to the largest concentration of Pictish carvings in Scotland. Damaging coastal processes, coupled with social deprivation in this former mining village, are leading to neglect and increasingly threaten the site. Local action group, Save the Wemyss Ancient Caves Society (SWACS), have collaborated with SCAPE on a digital recording project, making 3D models of the coastline and carvings and capturing the rich and vibrant social history of the caves. One collaborative technique employed harnessed the SCHARP team’s extensive film production knowledge to create a series of short films, one for each cave, as part of the wider recording project.
This paper will discuss the making of these films, showing how the partnership chose the stories to exemplify the distinct history of each cave. It will detail how the films were produced, highlighting the key role of the local community, who provided content, took acting roles and sourced materials. The talk will conclude with a showing of one of the short films, ‘Standing on the Shoulders of Giants’. This stars many members of SWACS and details the history of antiquarian recording at the caves, reinforcing a long tradition of research at an asset which is now in danger of being lost.

Tanya Freke, The SCAPE Trust & University of St Andrews