KIDS at Crossford Primary totally dig history – and have been unearthing their village’s fascinating past thanks to a creative community archaeology project.

Primary 6 pupils have been working on ‘Crossford Mysteries’, a project with Archaeology Scotland, which culminated in a presentation on Tuesday night. As part of their research, they looked up old maps from the National Library of Scotland, taken field trips and photos, recorded evidence, made clay models of Crossford and even made their own historic ‘find’!

‘Happy village’ The project came about after the school was contacted by resident Mark Seaborne, who started researching Crossford’s Waggon Road as part of an assignment for his university archaeology course.

Primary 6 teacher Lisa Colburn said, “For most of the children, it’s not really occurred to them to consider the history of Crossford – it’s a happy village on the edge of Dunfermline!

“They started asking family and friends about stories, which made them want to dig deeper, and that raised a lot of questions they wanted to investigate.” For the kids, their biggest discovery was the milestone – marked ‘Alloa 14’ – near the junction of the A994 and Douglas Drive, the picture of which is now on the website of the Royal Commission of the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.

Mrs Colburn added, “That was our first find – every single pupil had walked past it completely oblivious to it.

“They developed an eye for archaeology very quickly and every time we went out they found more and more – they’ve found a stone in a wall that was used in the Waggon Way and bricks with lettering on them which we will be able to trace back to manufacturers.” As part of their research, the kids were also fascinated by the ghost stories, especially of the ‘Grey Lady’, related to them by the secretary of Pitfirrane Golf Club.

The kids now aim to raise awareness and get the community to get involved in Archaeology Scotland’s ‘Adopt-a-Monument’ scheme to help protect important sites in the village.

Mrs Colburn continued, “They are very much more aware of their village now and are very proud to share what they’ve learned. The amount of learning they have had is incredible. They’re very excited about the whole project and Archaeology Scotland are hoping that will be the outcome.”