geoHeritage Fife

geoHeritage logo

geoHeritage Fife is a registered charity (SC032509) and a fully-constituted society which was set up in 2000.  geoHeritage Fife aims to publicise Fife's geological heritage, to provide educational resources in geology and to promote geotourism in Fife.  It also has a duty to inform the local planning authority on new geologically-important sites.  Contentious planning applications are referred to the group for assessment.

The group currently has 38 members who participate in field excursions, suggest new itineraries and “test-walk” new trail leaflets.  Its Chairman is Richard Batchelor, currently Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of St Andrews.

To date, geoHeritage Fife has:

  • produced several leaflets which explain aspects of Fife's geology
  • built a geological wall in St. Andrews (comprising rocks representative of Fife’s geology)
  • a stone cairn in Ladybank
  • recreated a Jurassic Garden in St. Andrews
  • erected plaques to two famous geologists (Matthew Heddle and Charles Lapworth) in St. Andrews

geoHeritage Fife also organises excursions to explore Fife’s geodiversity.  In 2009, it commissioned grants worth £7,700 to produce a plaster cast of a giant fossil arthropod trackway discovered in Fife that was considered at risk from erosion and vandalism.  Part of the cast is now on display in MUSA.

In late-2012, geoHeritage Fife joined a consortium of local groups and charities in Fife, called the “Living Lomonds Landscape Partnership”.  The consortium bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a three-year multidisciplinary project to explore the natural, cultural and built environment of the Lomond Hills area of Fife.  The bid was successful and £1.7 million was awarded to the consortium in August 2013, led by Fife Coast and Countryside Trust.  geoHeritage Fife’s share of this grant was £11.5k and match funding which raised and produced four trail leaflets describing the geological features of East Lomond, West Lomond, Bishop Hill and the Building Stones of Falkland village.

The group has been financially supported over the years by:

  • Fife Council
  • Scottish Natural Heritage
  • Curry Fund, The Royal Society
  • Scottish Enterprise Fife
  • The Skene Group
  • Kinburn (St Andrews) Charitable Trust
  • Edinburgh Geological Society
  • by membership subscriptions and donations

Leaflets