Dunfermline day...

Today has been truly fabulous from beginning to end.  

We set off for Dunfermline just after 11am, our first port of call being the Andrew Carnegie (1835 - 1919) birthplace museum, to learn how the son of a weaver, born in this tiny cottage shared with another family (the weaving looms were in the room downstairs and Carnegie and his parents lived in a single room upstairs that constituted the living room, kitchen and bedroom) became the richest man in the world and one of the most generous philanthropists of all time.

Carnegie believed in the "Gospel of Wealth," which advocated for wealthy individuals to give back to society during their lifetime. He distributed a significant portion of his wealth to various causes, including building public libraries, supporting education, and funding research.  He was a strong advocate for world peace and it is said the onset of WW1 and his deep sadness at being unable to prevent it, contributed to his ill health and death.

By the time of his death in 1919 he had given away $350 million, with more given after his death.  In today's money that equates to approximately ten billion dollars of his personal wealth.  Staggering.  

From there we visited The Carnegie Library, Gallery and Museum.  The library opened on 29 August 1883 and was the world's first Library funded by Andrew Carnegie.  You might have a Carnegie Library in your town :-)

We had a delicious lunch in the Galleries Granary cafe then saw the excellent exhibition Hag. Knowledge, Power & Alchemy through Craft.  As well as the work of thirteen amazing women craft artists, it featured Sarah MacGillivray's A Poem for Old Hags.  Very powerful.  We then enjoyed the museum on the second floor exploring Dunfermline's Kings and Queens, as well as many more wonderful exhibits.

We then headed through the museum garden to the grounds of Dunfermline Abbey.  It was one of my mum's favourite places and how fitting that my first visit to this amazing place was on what would have been her 85th birthday.  

We wandered in the grounds of the Abbey first, stopping by the site of the ruined shrine to Saint Margaret of Scotland, before entering the Abbey.

The Abbey has a long, rich and complicated history that I could never attempt to write about here, but Wiki gives a good summary.

The tomb of King Robert The Bruce is within the Abbey (although his heart is interred at Melrose Abbey)  His body was disturbed by workmen clearing the rubble of the collapsed Abbey tower in 1818. It was still wrapped in the winding sheet of gold cloth in which it had been buried in 1329. His skeletal remains were reinterred beneath Dunfermline Abbey Church and the grave sealed with a thick layer of molten bitumen to protect it from interference. His grave is covered by a brass memorial that was gifted in 1889 by the 9th Earl of Elgin, a descendant of the Bruce family. This brass memorial is embedded in a slab of Byzantine porphyry.  

We chatted to a member of staff who was polishing Bruce's memorial and he gave us wonderful insight into many aspects of the place, including that William Wallace's (Braveheart) mother Lady Margaret Crawford, is traditionally believed to be buried in the grounds of Dunfermline Abbey, specifically beneath a thorn tree.

Back home with our heads buzzing from a wonderfully interesting day.  A glass of wine in the Gin Palace helped us wind down :-)

P's final day with us tomorrow :-(   We are going to be so bored when she leaves!  

Extras...

Andrew Carnegie's birthplace
A wonderful Carnegie quote.  Trump, Musk, Bezos et al could learn from it.
Sesame Street characters. In 1966/67 funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York funded children's education studies, which led to the creation of the Sesame Workshop and its most famous programme, Sesame Street.
Dunfermline Abbey 
Dunfermline Abbey
Pulpit with Robert the Bruce's grave below the pulpit
The memorial plaque covering Bruce's grave