A WEST FIFE heritage project to boost mental health and wellbeing through learning about our past has been given £247,000 of lottery money.

It'll go towards three years of activities and programmes with the aim of getting people fit in mind and body – and helping with the recovery from the pandemic – by exploring parks, woods and historic sites.

The Carnegie Dunfermline Trust will use the award from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to create the 'Dunfermline & West Fife – Wellbeing Through Heritage' project which hopes to achieve a positive mood swing by tackling issues of isolation, loneliness and the economic loss of jobs and opportunities.

Chief executive Gillian Taylor said: “The trust is excited to be leading on this new project working with Fife Council, Fife Cultural Trust, Fife Coast & Countryside Trust and Fife Health & Social Care Partnership.

“The project will offer an innovative three-year partnership programme of activities that will use the rich heritage of Dunfermline and West Fife to improve the health, happiness and wellbeing of our local people, particularly those in most need.

"This investment in wellbeing couldn’t have come at a better time and we are keen to get started. We are committed to helping people discover the unique heritage on our doorstep, and to make much more of it.”

The overall cost is £383,000, the remainder of the funds is coming from the partners listed above, and the project will focus on the ‘Heritage Quarter’ – made up of Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries; Dunfermline Abbey, Nave and Palace; the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum; and Pittencrieff Park – as well as areas in the West Fife villages such as Valleyfield Woods, Inzievar Woods and Blair Tower.

Four of the programmes to be delivered will give people the opportunity to socialise and get physically active through walking and learning about local heritage; offer creative activities and traditional building skills, including for school-leavers; encourage volunteering, including the delivery of a heritage volunteering fair; and connect local social care organisations and charities with heritage bodies.

There will be a monthly heritage drop-in social club, regular outdoor activities at wildlife habitats, orchards and herb gardens, and creative sessions in the Heritage Quarter.

A new website will be developed to promote the use of heritage sites for improved wellbeing as well as a digital mindfulness tool and 'virtual' walking tours.

Caroline Clark, from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Our historic places, landscapes, parklands and nature form the bedrock of our culture and heritage, improving wellbeing, inspiring and connecting the communities surrounding and inhabiting them; and Dunfermline, and Fife as a whole, has an incredibly rich cultural, industrial and natural heritage.

“The project allows all these elements to be brought together to deal with the serious issue of mental health and wellbeing, especially following the unprecedented effects of the pandemic."

It will also align with local priorities and initiatives, such as Fife Health and Social Care Partnership's obesity project, local dementia campaigns and the council's programme for building new schools.

Councillor Helen Law, convenor of the City of Dunfermline area committee, said: “The funding will allow the partners to work together throughout the Dunfermline and West Fife area developing activities for all ages that will promote wellbeing and a greater understanding of our own world-class heritage assets.”

A full-time manager will be recruited to lead the project, with the support of a part-time officer, and a steering group will meet quarterly to assess progress.