A schoolboy who was walking his dog on a Fife golf course has discovered the skeleton of a young person who probably lived around 3000 years ago, writes Raymond Duncan.

The Bronze Age skeleton, which was later excavated by Glasgow University archaeologists, was found in a grave on the Kingsbarns golf course which is being built near St Andrews.

The body had been placed in a stone-lined grave and was in a flexed position with the knees and arms tucked tightly into the chests.

The skeleton is being analysed at Glasgow University where it is hoped it will provide more information about the Bronze Age.

David Finlay, 14, his father Willie and the family dog were walking on a coastal path when the schoolboy saw fragments of bones which he spotted were not of the animal type he had seen before on the site. The family contacted the police and the information was later passed to the local authority.

Golf course developers Granite Bay Scotland had a team of Glasgow archaeologists on call and they excavated the grave and lifted the bones which were later confirmed as human by Dr Susan Wighton of St Andrews University.

The site of the new golf course was known to contain some significant archaeological sites and all of these needed to be safeguarded by Fife Council's planning service as a condition of planning consent.

The sites include prehistoric enclosures and houses as well as the site of the thirteenth century Kingsbarns Castle.

The Glasgow University team was employed by the developers to monitor and, where necessary, recover archaeological fragments uncovered by the bulldozers.

Fife Council's archaeologist Peter Yeoman, whose department described the find as ''very exciting'', said it was vital to make sure that this part of Fife's history was not lost because of the construction works.

''The skeleton will now be analysed at Glasgow University and hopefully tell us more about life in the Bronze Age,'' he said.

Another extraordinary discovery at Kingsbarns, from more recent times, has been an eighteenth-century bridge which was found buried beneath more than 10ft of soil.

Granite Bay Scotland is keen to preserve this as an attractive feature of the new course.