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Lundin Links, Lower Largo, Fife
NO40SW 13 4130 0250
Skeletons and long cists were exposed on the beach at Lundin Links, Fife, after a severe storm in the winter of 1965. An excavation mounted the following Easter to record and excavate these features revealed part of a cemetery, with round and square cairns and long cists. Radiocarbon dates suggest that it was in use for upwards of a century at some time between about ad 450 and 650. The cemetery may have been related to a long cist cemetery indicated by previous discoveries. Work in 1996 following discovery of a leg bone in the seaward sand-cliff did not add materially to understanding of either cemetery. A study of skeletal traits which can indicate family connections tentatively suggested that one burial group included people with closer connections to each other than to others buried in the cemetery. Burial customs from the late first millennium bc through the first millennium ad are discussed. Recent radiocarbon dates and publication are sponsored by Historic Scotland.
Unpublished report 'Excavation of a cairn cemetery at Lundin Links, Fife, in 1965–6', by Colvin Greig, Moira Greig and Patrick Ashmore (2000).
