Dunfermline
Dunfermline
| |
|---|---|
| Area | 7.07 sq mi (18.3 km2) |
| Population | Expression error: "45,462 (2006 estimate) 75,570 (settlement)" must be numeric |
| OS grid reference | NT105875 |
| Council area | |
| Lieutenancy area | |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | DUNFERMLINE |
| Postcode district | KY11, KY12 |
| Dialling code | 01383 |
| Police | Scotland |
| Fire | Scottish |
| Ambulance | Scottish |
| UK Parliament | |
| Scottish Parliament | |
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2008) |
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This article was last edited by 84.70.8.220 (talk | contribs) 16 years ago. (Update timer) |
Dunfermline (Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Phàrlain) is a town and former Royal Burgh in Fife, Scotland. It sits on high ground 3 miles from the shore of the Firth of Forth, northwest of Edinburgh. The town is an historic capital of Scotland.
King Robert the Bruce is buried within Dunfermline Abbey in the town centre and the ruins of Dunfermline's Royal Palace lie adjacent to the abbey. The centre of Dunfermline is intersected from north to south by Pittencrief Park, a picturesque cleugh known locally as the Glen at the bottom of which flows the Lyne Burn from which the name Dunfermline is derived.
Recent population estimates show the population of Dunfermline in 2006 to be 45,462. The population of Dunfermline combined with its' somewhat 'suburban' towns and villages (including Dalgety Bay, Inverkeithing and Rosyth)supports an estimated population of 75,570. [2]
Dunfermline is effectively coalesced with the town of Rosyth, which is itself continuous with nearby Inverkeithing. Industries in the Dunfermline area include engineering, electronics, defence and textiles. Employment in the town has diversified into service sector employment.], amongst others.[3].
History
Toponymy
Pictish and Celtic names in the Dunfermline area are multiple. For example, the "bal" (a dwelling) found in Balmule and Balclune; the prefix "caer" (a castle) found in Carnock (caer-knock), Cairneyhill and Keirsbeath and Pittencrieff and Pitreative from "pit". A Latin charter of Malcolm III concerning the birth of Dunfermline Abbey makes reference to Dunfermline's Latin name - Mons infirmorum. Dunfermline is derived from "Dun" (fortified hill), "fiaram" (bent or crooked) and "lin" (a cascade or pool). A reference of the town's name is found in the tower hill which around the rivulet is crooked dropping over the 15 foot cascade of the Ferm burn. [4]
Early history
One of the earliest records of the city was known for being used as a centre of the Culdees in 570 AD, based on a site near or on the grounds of the present Abbey. [4] Written history of Dunfermline begins with King Malcolm III in the mid-11th century whom would play a pivotal role transferring power from Forteviot in Perthshire to Dunfermline becoming the seat of power and capital of Scotland. [5]
King Malcolm III accepted marriage to Queen Margaret in 1069 as his second wife after she met him in his royal residence which would became the site of Dunfermline Palace [6][7] although according to St Dunleum, they had met each other previously. [4] Margaret's Benedictine education encouraged him to convert the small Culdee church into a Benedictine priory. The new church was inaugurated around 1072 with Lanfranc, then-Archbishop of Canterbury sending Benedictine monks on the insistence of Margaret who not only dedicated the priory to the holy trinity. Another dedication to the priory was also made to the "crucifix of the holy saviour" made of ebony, gold and silver and covered in gems from her own homeland. [5] King Malcolm III was killed at the battle of Alnwick, Queen Margaret died in Edinburgh Castle on 10th November 1093. [5][6] The body of the Queen was taken to Dunfermline for her burial [5] on a site near the Rwde Awtre (the Altar of the Holy Cross or Rood) via the Queen's Ferry but this was journey was made with great difficulty particularly when the castle was under siege by Donald Bane with the only exit in the from of a secret door in the abbey church. [4]
Creation and influence of Dunfermline Abbey
The Benedictine priory was raised to the rank of an abbey in 1128 by Daniel I of Scotland, with Priory Geoffrey in place as the first abbot. [5][6] During the course of several decades, the abbey gained power and wealth in Dunfermline with the dedication of 26 altars being gifted by the individuals and guilds and the bishop of Dunfermline controlled a large piece of land from Moray to Berwickshire close to the English border which included four burghs and three courts of regality. [5] The abbey was also given permission to dig the lands of Pittencrieff in 1291 for the extraction of coal for personal usage on a lease - the oldest record of not only coal mining but also Fife industry benefiting many people who would eventually depend on this livelihood as their source of work in West Fife. [5][8] There were five individual developments to the abbey all occurring between 1128 and 1450 with the construction of a nave around 1140; the expansion of the choir of the mastried church complete with a shrine in 1240 which was followed by major restoration work of the recetory partially assisted by Robert the Bruce - who died shortly after and was buried in the graveyard [8] - in 1329 and then later with a new West Gave by Bishop Richard de Bothwell in 1450. Further work centered around the north-west tower of the nave between 1594 and 1599 by William Shaw. [5]
The abbey though did have some rough patches with the force of the troops of Edward I causing substantial damage in 1303 [8] which he claimed beforehand: "not a church, but a den of thieves.....a throne in the eye of the English throne" [7] with another contribution by the reformation lords in 1560 causing the demolition of some parts - including the removal of shrine of St Margaret which has been labelled as maybe their worst act [5] - deterorating the state of the abbey further. [5]
History of the town's name and Royal Burgh status
The town's name was first recorded as "Dunfermelitane" in the confirmation charters by David I in 1128. The name of "Dunfermline" was not officially adopted until 1609 but references had been made in the seals and badges of the royal coat of arms. [4] Dunfermline was credited as a "menus burgh" by David II of Scotland[8] with evidence suggesting that burgh of barony status took place between 1124 and 1147 although granted by Alexander II of Scotland. [4][5] Royal burgh status was later granted by James VII in 1588. [7][5]
The construction of six gates in Dunfermline in 1396 were to maintain the burgher's rights; the need for tolls and to a lesser extent to defend. These gates were: The Mill or Collieraw Port (East of Bruce Street); Rottenraw port (near the top of South Chapel Street); Crosswynd Port (now Crosswynd) East Port; Tolbooth Port (bottom of Bruce Street) and West Port (middle of St Catherines Wynd). [4]
Dunfermline would retain being the capital of Scotland until the brutal murder of James II at Perth, Scotland [5] in 1436. The royal family felt safer in Edinburgh Castle, as burghs such as Dunfermline and Stirling could not provide protection in defense of the nobles. [4]
Decline of royal status and birth of the linen industry
The relocation of the Scottish courts to London being the result of the union of the crowns drawn up in 1603 saw the loss of the town's royal connections. [6][7] A subsequent fire in 1624 [4] saw a large part of the town in ruin [7] , before being deprived of the eccestrial centre along with St Andrews by the Reformation. Dunfermline quickly sank into decline. [5]
In the 18th century, the town impressed Daniel Defoe as showing the "full perfection of decay" [7] but soon regained prosperity with the introduction of the weaving of linen damask [8] - which the town would eventually become the world's leading producer [6] - established by James Blake in 1718 after being inspired by having gained the experience of the special technique of one in Edinburgh as the way to take Dunfermline forward. [5][8] Dunfermline became one of four main centres of the industry alongside Kirkcaldy, Dysart and Leslie in 1810. [8] Although the first power looms in operation brought greater demand for the town's linen industry by 1825 as Dunfermline began to acknowledge the coming of the industrial revolution. [6][8] The undemining success of the linen in dunfermline was prompted by a report by the Ordnance Gazette in 1894 who said: "The damask manufacture of Dunfermline is probably unequalled in the world for design and beauty of finish". [8]
Among other industries that have largely contributed to the welfare of the town are dyeing [8], bleaching [8]; soap (from 1790s) [8]; rope-making (from 1830s) [8]; iron founding [8]; textile milling [6]; distillery [6] and brewing. [8]
Landmarks
The town is well supplied with public buildings. The New Abbey church, the United Free church in Queen Anne Street founded by Ralph Erskine, and the Gillespie church, named after Thomas Gillespie (1708—1774), another leader of the Secession movement, possess historical importance. Erskine is commemorated by a statue in front of his church and a sarcophagus over his grave in the abbey churchyard; Gillespie by a marble tablet on the wall above his resting-place within the abbey.
The Corporation buildings, a blend of the Scots Baronial and French Gothic styles, contain busts of several Scottish sovereigns a statue of Robert Burns, and Sir Noel Paton's painting of the "Spirit of Religion." Other structures are the County buildings, the Public, St Margaret's, Music and Carnegie halls, the last in the Tudor style, Carnegie public baths, high school (founded in 1560), school of science and art, and two hospitals .
Sport
Football
Dunfermline is home to professional football team Dunfermline Athletic who play their games at East End Park on Halbeath Road. They play in The Irn-Bru Scottish First Division.
Rugby union
Dunfermline Rugby Football Club]] are based at McKane Park. The club has various teams, from the First XV which plays in Scotland's Premier 3 League, through to a Mini Section for primary school children.
Athletics
Linsey Macdonald was a member of the bronze medal winning women's 400m relay team at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. She was also a finalist in the individual 400m. Her old club Pitreavie AAC is still an active club with international competitors in track and field, cross country and road running.
The Dunfermline City Half Marathon is one of several summer long distance races which attracts an international field.
Tennis
Dunfermline Tennis & Bridge Club is located on Bothwell Street and has teams that regularly compete in inter-club competitions. The club also offers coaching for all ages and abilities. More information is available at dunfermlinetennis.co.uk.
Town Centre
Much of Dunfermline's Town Centre is a Conservation Area and it contains a large number of historic buildings. The most prominent of these is the historic Abbey. The ruins of the former palace sit adjacent to this to the south. Abbots House Museum located to the north of Dunfermline Abbey is one of the oldest properties in the town. The town centre also contains a number of historic churches and the gothic style City Chambers which form an important part of the town's skyline. The town centre is popular for tourists and improvement works are currently being undertaken to enhance the public realm and historic streetscape.[9]
Dunfermline is also sub-regional shopping centre serving west Fife [10] [11]. The centre is popular and has some of the highest levels of footfall in Fife [12]. The main shopping thoroughfare is located along a traditional, pedestrianised High Street. At one end of the High Street is a modern shopping mall, the Kingsgate Centre.
Public facilities in and around the centre include the Carnegie Theatre, the Carnegie Library, the Carnegie Sports Centre, the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum and the Dunfermline police station, sheriff court and fire station are located at various points on Carnegie Drive to the north of the town centre.
Culture
Music
Dunfermline has always had a folk music tradition. Local groups include the Dunfermline Folk Club, Dunfermline Abbey Choir and Dunfermline district pipe band. Live Music Venues, also have had a strong prominence in Dunfermline with the likes of Montys and PJ Molloys. Many night clubs are also present such as Harlem, Johnson's, Life and Lorenzo's(Formerly Urban). 'Velocity' / 'Kinema Live' serves as both a nightclub and music venue(previously known as The Kinema Ballroom, Night Magic, Hollywood Boulevard & The Ballroom) and are mainly concentrated around the city centre. [13] Many bands to come out of Dunfermline in terms of popular music. Details are to be found here [14]
Theatre
Dunfermline is fortunate to have been bequeathed with two theatres, the Carnegie Hall Theatre and the Alhambra.
Carnegie Hall is a 540-seat theatre complete with a music institute and a restaurant. The theatre was gifted to Dunfermline by philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie. [15]
The Alhambra Theatre was founded in 1922, operating for many years in the town, until the site was sold to a bingo club in 1965. The theatre is one of the most impressive in Fife holding at least 1000 seats, with much of the original building work intact and will be a benefit in the city centre with the on-going regeneration project. The theatre is due to re-open, by late 2009. The Alhambra campaign, "Alhambra Alive", was launched in the theatre in late winter 2007. [16][17]
Museums
Dunfermline has three museums located in and adjacent to the town's centre. The Carnegie Birth Place Museum is located at the southern gateway to the town centre. It contains artefacts relating to Dunfermline's most famous son, philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The Abbotts House Heritage Centre is located in the historic core of the town centre on Maygate. It contains exhibits relating to Dunfermline and its place in history. The Pittencrieff House Museum is located in Pittencrieff Park adjacent to the town centre. It contains exhibits and artefacts relating to the history and formation of the Park over 350 million years.
Education
Primary schools
Dunfermline has 16 primary schools:
- Bellyeoman Primary School
- Canmore Primary School
- Commercial Primary School
- Duloch School
- Lynburn Primary School
- Masterton Primary School
- McLean Primary School
- Milesmark Primary School
- Pitcorthie Primary School
- Pitreavie Primary School
- Pittencrieff Primary School
- St.Leonard's Primary School
- St.Margaret's RC Primary School
- Touch Primary School
- Townhill Primary School
- Wellwood Primary School
Secondary schools
There are four High Schools in Dunfermline. These are:
Dunfermline High School
Dunfermline High School is one of the oldest and most populated high schools in Scotland, founded in 1120. [7].
Queen Anne High School
Queen Anne High School is a large non-denominational secondary school of around 1,800. It is the fifth largest in Scotland [8] and serves pupils in the north of Dunfermline.
Woodmill High School
Woodmill High School is located in Dunfermline.
St Columba's High School
St Columba's is a Roman Catholic High School, one of only two in Fife, serving West Fife. It has an expansive catchment area, stretching from Ballingry in the North to North Queensferry in the South and Kincardine in the West to Lochgelly in the east.
Special schools
Calaiswood School, located in the Duloch Schools Campus, next to Duloch Primary, part of Duloch Schools. Is is a purpose-built special school offering an elaborated curriculum for pupils with additional support needs from nursery age to 18. Calaiswood replaces the former - Robert Henryson and Headwell schools. There is also a DSE (Department of Special Education) at Woodmill HS.
Further education
Dunfermline is home to Carnegie College (formerly Lauder College), located in the Halbeath area to the east of the town.
Dunfermline is within commuting distance for universities in Edinburgh,St. Andrews, Stirling, Dundee and Glasgow.
Transport
Railway stations
Dunfermline is served by two railway stations: Dunfermline Town and Dunfermline Queen Margaret. Dunfermline Town was formerly known as Dunfermline Lower.
Dunfermline Town railway station is located southeast of the city centre and is served on the Fife Circle Line. [9]
Dunfermline Queen Margaret railway station is located on Whitefield Road primarily for hospital traffic and is also served on the Fife circle line. [10]
Rosyth and Inverkeithing are also railway stations in close proximity to the town. [11] [12]
Dunfermline Bus Station
The bus station is situated in the town centre.
Political subdivisions
The original plans for reform of local government in the early 1970s envisaged splitting Fife between two regions based in Edinburgh and Dundee but after public protest the plans were dropped and Fife became a separate region with Dunfermline one of its constituent districts.
Since 1996 Dunfermline has been included in the Fife unitary area. (See: Subdivisions of Scotland)
See A. H. Millar's Fife: Pictorial and Historical (2 vols,, 5895); and Sheriff Alneas Mackay's History of Fife and Kinross (189?).
Twin cities and towns
Notable people
- Andrew Carnegie, (1835-1919), is the most celebrated of all Dunfermline's sons, as he is certainly Dunfermline's greatest benefactor. He gave to his birthplace the free library and public baths, and, in 1903, the estate of Pittencrieff Park and Glen, rich in historical associations as well as natural charm, together with bonds yielding £25,000 a year, in trust for the maintenance of the park, the support of a theatre for the production of plays of the highest merit, the periodical exhibitions of works of art and science, the promotion of horticulture among the working classes and the encouragement of technical education in the district. So while New York's Carnegie Hall is much better known, Dunfermline has its own.
- Robert Henryson (c.1430-c.1500), one of Scotland's most important poets, was connected with the Abbey and probably ran the grammar school which would have served the Abbatial Burgh. He wrote in a period when the city, with its palace and abbey complex, was one of the key cultural centres in Scotland. His poetry, which is subtle, vivid and multi-layered, can often convey a strong impression of the life and landscape that would have been found in and around Dunfermline at the time. It is also a rich record of the Scots that would have been spoken. It is likely, though not certain, that he was native to The Kingdom of Fife and he has been tentatively associated with Clan Henderson of Fordell.
- Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649), King of England,Scotland , France and Ireland.
- Billy Liddell (b. January 10, 1922, Townhill, Dunfermline - d. July 3, 2001, Liverpool), Scottish footballer who played his entire professional career with Liverpool F.C..
- Ian Anderson, (1947-) singer, frontman of the long-running British group Jethro Tull.
- Barbara Dickson (1947-), singer
- John Forbes (general) (5 September 1707 – March 11, 1759), a general in the French and Indian War who liberated Fort Duquesne and established Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
- Sir Joseph Noel Paton (1821-1901), painter and poet, and whose father was a designer of patterns for the damask trade
Notable residents include:
- David Ferguson (ca. 1533-1598), parish minister who made the first collection of Scottish proverbs (not published until 1641),
External links
- Dunfermline Media
- Dunfermline Website
- Kingsgate Shopping Centre
- Dunfermline Guide website- a guide to Dunfermline
- Visit Dunfermline website
- Dunfermline online website
- Early Carnegie Libraries - featuring the world's first Carnegie Library in Dunfermline.
- Dunfermline Economic Profile
- Friends of Masterton Community Website
References
- ^ "Demographic info on Dunfermline, NHS Fife" (PDF). Retrieved on 6 August 2008
- ^ Fife Council (2008) Population Estimates for Towns and Villages in Fife [1]
- ^ Fife Council (2006) Dunfermline Economic profile [2]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Durie, Bruce (2002). A Century of Dunfermline. WHSmith. ISBN 075093137X.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Lamont-Brown, Raymond (2002). Fife in History and Legend. John Donald Publishing. p. Pages 178-80, 82 & 86. ISBN 0859765679.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Hendrie, William F. (2002). Old Dunfermline. Stenlake Publishing. p. Pages 3, 32, 36 & 40-42. ISBN 1840331941.
- ^ a b c d e f Pride, Glen L. (1999). The Kingdom of Fife, 2nd edition. The Rutland Press. p. Pages 8-10. ISBN 1873190492.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o The Fife Book. Birlinn Publishing Ltd. 2000. p. Pages 128, 132-33, 182 & 189-90. ISBN 1841582743.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|edited=ignored (help) - ^ BBC news article Dunfermline to get £100m revamp [3]
- ^ Fife Council (2006) Dunfermline Town Centre Fact Sheet [4]
- ^ Fife Council (2006) Fife Town Centres Audit [5]
- ^ Fife Council (2006) Town Centre Footfall report [6]
- ^ "nightlife, Dunfermline guide". Retrieved on 27 July 2008
- ^ "Dunfermline Music Profile, kinemagigz". Retrieved on 27 July 2008
- ^ "Carnegie Hall profile, artfife". Retrieved on 27 July 2008
- ^ "Alhamba Theatre profile, britishtheatreguide". Retrieved on 27 July 2008
- ^ "Alhamba Theatre news, BBC News Scotland Edinburgh and East". Retrieved on 27 July 2008
- Scottish Executive. "Scottish schools, names, addresses and school rolls". Retrieved 2006-12-23.