Dunfermline Abby

Dunfermline Abby

Dunfermline Abbey is as a Church of Scotland Parish Church located in Dunfernline, Fife, Scotland. Dunfermline Abbey is one of Scotland's most important cultural sites.

The abbey was founded in 1128 by King David I of Scotland, but the monastic establishment was based on an earlier foundation dating back to the reign of King Mael Coluim mas Donnchada (i.e. "Malcolm III" or "Malcolm Canmore", r. 1058-93) and his queen. It was administered by the Abbot of Dunfermline, its first being Groffrey of Canterbury, former prior of Christ Chuch Canterbury, the Kent religious house that probably supplied Dunfermline's first Benedictine monks.

In the decades after its foundation the abbey gained power and wealth with the dedication of 26 altars gifted by individuals and guilds and was a lucrative center of pilgrimage after Dunfermline became a center for the well-promoted cult of St. Margaret (Malcolm's wife and David's mother).

During the winter of 1303 the court of Edward I of England was held in the abbey, and on his departure next year most of the buildings were burned.

During the Scottish Reformation, the abbey church was sacked in March 1560. Some parts of the abbey infrastructure still remain, principally the vast refectory and rooms over the gatehouse which was part of the former city wall. The nave was also spared and it was repaired in 1570 by Robert Drummond of Carnock. Next to the abbey is the ruin of Dunfermline Palace, also part of the original abbey complex and connected to it via the gatehouse.

Dunfermline Abbey, one of Scotland's most important cultural sites, has received more of Scotland’s royal dead than any other place in the kingdom, excepting Iona. The tomb of Saint Margaret and Malcolm Canmore, within the ruined walls of the Lady chapel, was restored and enclosed by command of Queen Victoria.

Famous Births, Marriages, & Burials

· Saint Margaret of Scotland was buried here in 1093; on 19 June 1250 following her Canonization her remains were disinterred and placed in a reliquary at the high altar. Her husband Malcolm's remains were also disinterred, and buried next to Margaret.

· Both Duncan II, 1094, and his wife Ethelreda, were buried here

· Donald III of Scotland 1099

· Edgar of Scotland was buried here in 1107

· Alexander I of Scotland, ,1124, and his queen Sybill de Normandy, 1122, were buried here

· David I of Scotland was buried here (1153) along with his queen Maud, Countess of Huntingdon (1130)

· Malcolm IV of Scotland was buried here in 1165

· Alexander III of Scotland (1286), was buried here, with his first wife Margaret of England (1275) and their sons David of Scotland (1281) and Alexander of Scotland (1284)

· Elizabeth de Burgh, wife of Robert of Scotland, was buried here in 1327

· Robert the Bruce was buried, in 1329, in the choir, now the site of the present parish church. Bruce’s heart rests in Melrose, but his bones lie in Dunfermline Abbey, where (after the discovery of the skeleton in 1818) they were reinterred with fitting pomp below the pulpit of the New church. In 1891 the pulpit was moved back and a monumental brass inserted in the floor to indicate the royal vault.

· Matilda of Scotland, daughter of Robert I of Scotland, was buried here in 1353

· Anabelle Drummond, wife of Robert III and mother of James I was buried here in 1401

· Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, was buried here in 1420

· Birthplace, in 1600, of Charles I , the last British monarch born in Scotland.

· William Schaw, Master of Work to the Crown of Scotland, was buried here in 1602: his tomb can still be seen.

· Bishop James Bruce