THE people of Cowdenbeath have been assured that the historic Old Beath Cemetery will be restored to its former glory.

A Times reader was shocked by what she discovered on a visit to the cemetery to the west of Old Perth Road, near Beath Church.

She said: "It looks like all the gravestones that were along the perimeter wall are down. Apparently, a tree knocked over the wall and that brought down the gravestones. I'm not quite sure how so many were knocked down.

"Another tree further over has been chopped into bits and another gravestone close by it has been knocked over somehow.

"The place is in a real state - there are marks left by some kind of heavy vehicle all over (possibly unavoidable) and tree branches scattered all over the place.

"I'm wondering whether the relatives of the knocked down gravestones have been informed? Surely they're not liable for the cost of reinstating them if they were knocked down?"

The reader added: "It doesn't seem possible that all these gravestones just fell down - does look like they've had to move them out of the way to fix the wall. At least they've removed the branches and the wall has been fixed, but the area is in a shocking state. The various memorials are in danger of being damaged lying down like that".

Fife Council's Bereavement Services Manager, Liz Murphy, said that the gravestones had to be moved to allow for storm damage to be repaired.

Ms Murphy told the Times: "The stones were dismantled to allow the repair of the boundary wall which was severely damaged by a tree that came down during a storm in 2019.

"Most of the repair work has been carried out on the wall but we are still waiting for the metal railings to be re-installed which hopefully will be soon.

"Once that's done all the headstones which were dismantled will be re-erected."