ANIMAL bones and pieces of pottery are among the finds at an archaeological dig in Inverkeithing.

Volunteers took to the grounds of the town's 14th-century Friary last week to uncover the remains of the once prominent structure.

Extending towards the water, and across to where the Civic Centre now sits, the Friary was once a hub for pilgrims making their way to St Andrews and Dunfermline.

"The team are trying to investigate and learn more about the medieval building, it was thought to have been established in the 14th century so it is at least 700-years-old," Gavin MacGregor, archaeologist and former Inverkeithing High School pupil, told the Press.

"We know there will also be remains from people who were living there more recently as well.

"In the 1930s, the building was restored and used by the community for many years after, during that restoration the gardens were rearranged as you currently see them today."

Closer to the shore, walls which held up parts of the building are still standing, with Emma Griffiths, from Inverkeithing Heritage Regeneration, explaining that despite looking original, some parts would have been replaced or reworked over time.

She also pointed out areas where oyster shells, which were abundant in the area, had been used to fill gaps.

Here, volunteer John Marshall discovered a variety of different items, including animal teeth and jaw bones.

Fife Council archaeologist Douglas Speirs explained that these would have been remnants of animals brought in for food, with the Friary kitchens thought to have been located in the area now taken up by Inverkeithing Civic Centre.

Emma Frost, who has been following the project since it's inception while she still attended Inverkeithing High School, and who now studies archaeology at Edinburgh University, explained some of her discoveries.

She said: "The oysters were part of the diet of people who used to live in this area, we also have tons and tons of animal bones that have been broken up which tells us they were probably from butchers."

She also showed off pottery and stone fragments, some of which still had green glazing despite their time underground.

Gavin added: "They are probably from the 16th or 17th century, the green glaze is probably quite late, they have become mixed up as the site has been reused.

"We are lucky there are people who spend their lives studying these, and they will look at this eventually and tell us what kind of vessels they came from and what kind of age they are. It is an ongoing story, not only do we have to do the excavation, but we have to do the analysis afterwards.

"It would be wonderful, it is my daydream, that we could find a pilgrim's badge that had been left in the cloisters by someone who had travelled from further afield.

"The other thing we might find is that whoever was living here in the 17th or 18th century was burying their rubbish out here, so we might get some really nice deposits of material that are from those people that tell a really personal story of who was living here."

Information discovered from the dig, which ended on Wednesday, will now be collated and eventually published by organisers Northlight Heritage, alongside Fife Council, Fife Historic Buildings Trust, Historic Environment Scotland, and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.