A Letter From Scotland
From Yvonne Willcocks
Wha-hey” as Robert Burns might have said, there are lots of snowdrops everywhere! That means Spring is on the way! Soon there will be daffodils, and then bluebells, and then tree blossoms, and before you can say Jack Robin, we will be sunbathing! Maybe I sound optimistic but the weather in Scotland has not been at all bad this winter. I should really only speak for my area, Dunfermline in Fife, as there certainly have been snow problems in the Mountains.
I have lived in Dunfermline for nearly eleven years and at first it seemed rather small after over thirty years in London, and before that New York City, Zurich, Antwerp and The Hague, where I was born in Wassenaar. But it quickly grows on you and we are very happy here. One reason that brought us here was that my younger daughter got married and has two of our lovely grandchildren. Meanwhile my elder daughter also had two children and lives in the south of England, which means that we trek happily back and forth.
Edinburgh is about 30 minutes away from Dunfermline by car (or rail), over the Forth Road Bridge. Next year the new “Queensferry Bridge” will be completed, making a trio with the iconic Forth Rail Bridge which has just celebrated its 125th anniversary. Of course almost everybody knows about Edinburgh, but we have found that Dunfermline is a great place to live, and we love its royal and ancient history.
Its origins go back to King Malcolm III who defeated Macbeth and married Margaret, a Saxon princess fleeing from William the Conqueror of England. The pious Queen Margaret was later canonised and her son David built a Benedictine Abbey on the hillside which must have been a wonderful sight to the pilgrims who visited her shrine. Malcolm’s dynasty reigned for over 200 years when Edward I of England tried to subdue Scotland, but finally Robert the Bruce triumphed. His grave is in Dunfermline’s Church. Much of the Abbey was destroyed by zealous Protestants during the Reformation in 1560. However, the magnificent Romanesque nave survived as the parish church, and in 1824 a new church was added.
From its earliest days Dunfermline was the seat of Royalty and a Palace was built next to the Abbey for the family and for visitors. Both Robert the Bruce and Edward I lived here (but not at the same time!). James VI lived in the Palace, and Charles I was born here. When Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, James and his Court moved to London. After this the Palace soon decayed and now only one magnificent wall remains.
Not to be missed in Dunfermline is Abbot House (or “The Pink Hoose” as locals call it) just across the ancient Graveyard. Dating from the Abbey’s heyday, it is both a museum and a café. You must try their home-baked scones and cakes! It was probably not the Abbot’s home but it has had many uses in its time. Lady Anne Halkett (Hackett), a teacher, herbalist and midwife, lived here for many years following an exciting life at the Stewart Royal Court in London. In the 1990’s the house was carefully renovated, the café installed in the barrel-vaulted lower rooms while the upstairs chambers displayed Dunfermline’s history and its notable residents. Taking tea in the herb garden over-looking the Abbey is delightful.
Pittencrieff Park, known locally as “The Glen”, was once a royal hunting ground below the great monastery. The name “Dunfermline” is said to derive from a hill with a tower, surrounded by a winding ‘burn’. Although the tower has been reduced to its foundations, it still sits on a rocky outcrop making a loop in the stream at its base as it flows gently through the deep, tree-covered valley. To the west is a landscaped park which was owned by a succession of landowners. One notable laird was General John Forbes whose home was Pittencrieff House, an imposing orangecoloured, lime-coated building overlooking the Burn and with commanding views of the Park. Forbes was the general who, in 1758, engineered the successful 300-mile trail through Pennsylvania to take Fort Duquesne from the French - with the aid of a young George Washington. Forbes named the captured settlement Pittsburg in honour of William Pitt, the Prime Minister, and it is where Carnegie made his millions. Later owners of the Park have landscaped the grounds and added features like the ‘Laird’s Garden’ and the tropical greenhouses.
Andrew Carnegie was born in 1835 in a tiny cottage in Dunfermline near the Park, and the story goes that when ‘Andra’ was young, radical members of his family fell out with the owners of the Park and his family was banned from coming there. The great philanthropist got his own back when he returned as the richest man in the world. He bought the whole place and ‘gifted Pittencrieff Park to the people of Dunfermline for ever’. The cottage has since been expanded into a museum of the great man’s life and achievements, and it is well worth a visit.
The ancient county of Fife is surrounded by the sea on three sides with a succession of charming old fishing villages. During the last few years a scheme to construct the Fife Coastal Path, a continuous footpath all round the coast, has been completed. We particularly enjoy a section of the path around the little port of Aberdour, past its golf course, between fields to a ruined church where we sit and look out across the Firth of Forth to Edinburgh and “Arthur’s Seat”, the volcanic hill on the far side of the city.
Scotland is a great place for walkers and recently the availability of distance-walking, or ‘pilgrimage’ has become a topical issue highlighted by the revival of the European pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostella in Spain. It’s not just for religious pilgrimages, although that is reviving, but health pilgrimage is increasing, and cultural history pilgrimages are popular. People are realising that sights and folks met along the way are just as important as arriving at their destination. With local and national support, Scottish Pilgrim Routes Forum is planning off-road routes across the country. Scotland has its own saints including St. Columba, St. Kentigern and St. Andrew. Dunfermline’s own St Margaret will feature in a re-created Fife Pilgrim Way across the county to St Andrews.