Dunfermline Abbey - Scotland

Dunfermline Abbey and Palace is located on St. Margaret Street in Dunfermline, Scotland.  The history of the abbey is foggy at best, but its origins lie in the establishment of a priory at Dunfermline by Benedictine monks at the behest of Queen Margaret, wife of King Malcom III, sometime before 1100.  By 1130 the abbey had been completed by Margaret’s son, King David I.  Geoffrey, Prior of Canterbury, became the first abbot of Dunfermline in 1128.  David sought his abbey to be the greatest in Scotland and lavished great gifts on the building, while employing some of the greatest craftsmen his country had to offer.  The church was to also serve as a holy shrine for the royal family, serving as the burial place for Scotland’s kings and queens beginning with Malcom III in 1093 and ending in 1602.  David I, Malcom IV, Alexander III and Robert the Bruce all were laid to rest at the abbey.  The building suffered during the Protestant Reformation of 1560, being ransacked and partially destroyed. In the late 1500’s the royal family made several alterations to the site, adding buildings and destroying others.  By 1821 a new church opened in Dunfermline and the old abbey, in ruins, was left as it was.  In 1840 restoration was begun and completed in stages through 1924.

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