Doo Cave

Wemyss Caves

Doo Caves

In the middle Ages only lairds and burghs were allowed to keep pigeons to provide fresh meat during the winter months when many of the cows had to be slaughtered and the meat salted, as there was not enough hay for all the cattle to survive the winter. It was only when Charles Townshend discovered (c1735) that the turnip was a suitable winter-feeding that Doocots gradually died out.
Pigeons and pigeon lofts were often included in the dowry for the laird’s Daughters. There was a Doocot, which once stood, near the Shore has been washed away by high tides. Before the First World War there were two Doo Caves, the East and the West.

Doo Cave

Holes for the pigeon to fly in and out were built high above the bricked-up entrances to the caves which were interconnected by a passageway.

The West Doo Cave contained a number of markings, which have thankfully been recorded in the ‘Proceedings of the Antiquarian Society’. Sadly the West Doo Cave collapsed during the First World War when there was a battery above these caves and guns were frequently fired. All that is left now is a big hollow above and to the side of the East Doo Cave.

On counting the pigeon boxes in the East Doo Cave there were found to be 92, however with silting up of the floor now only about 70 can be counted, some doubles. Pigeons still nest in the Cave but only on the high ledges. Mud from the collapsed West Doo Cave ran down the connecting passage into the East Doo Cave so that the floor of the Cave now rises at the back. There is also a small seepage of water down the west side making a deep gulley. In 1945 a fierce storm washed away the sea wall. There are no markings in this Cave.

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