Dunfermline
 Abbeys |  Royal Britain |
The kingdom of Fife was so called because Dunfermline was the home of Scotland's kings from the days of Malcolm III in the 11th century, until the union of the Crowns of Scotland and England under James VI (James I of England) in 1603.
For six centuries Dunfermline was Scotland's capital, and seven Scottish kings are buried there - Malcolm III, Edgar, Alexander I, David I, Malcolm IV, Alexander III and Robert I (Robert Bruce). Malcolm III built a palace there in 1070, and in that year he married a Saxon princess, Margaret, in a small kirk (church) near the palace.
Margaret became a strong influence in Scottish religious life, and eventually replaced the old Celtic religion with her own Roman Catholic belief. At the place of her marriage, she founded a Benedictine abbey in 1072, the first in Scotland. Dunfermline Abbey still has a late Norman nave, and the original foundations of Margaret's abbey can be seen through grilles set in the nave floor. The square, central tower was restored early in the 19th cent, and its parapet has the words 'King Robert the Bruce' in stone lettering extending around four sides. Robert the Bruce was buried in the abbey in 1329, and his tomb is marked by a brass plate given by the Earl of Elgin, a descendent of Bruce, in 1889.
At the east end of the nave is the shrine of St Margaret, who was canonised in 1250; Margaret was also responsible for a new palace, built on a grander scale than was Malcolm's. The palace was rebuilt in 1315, after having been destroyed on the orders of Edward I. Several monarchs were born there, notably two Stuarts, James I of Scotland in 1394 and Charles I in 1600. The palace is now a ruin, but the 205ft long west wall, supported by eight buttresses, still remains. Dunfermline was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1624, and many of its ancient buildings were lost. One that did survive is the 16th century Abbot's House, which has been carefully restored.
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was born in Dunfermline, emigrated to the USA, became a millionaire and presented his home town with a library, as he did with 3000 other towns in the USA, Canada and Britain. In addition, he gave Dunfermline its beautiful Pittencrieff Park, where there is a 17th century mansion containing a costume museum; a circle of stones in the park marks the site of Malcolm III's palace. The cottage where Carnegie was born is preserved as a museum.