At last, more photos from our Summer 2004 vacation in Great Britain. On 26 July, we drove a short distance north from Edinburgh to spend a day in Fife, where we stopped for a few hours in Dunfermline. This ancient and historic town, located four miles northwest of the Forth Road Bridge, has two sites of interest to Christians: Dunfermline Abbey and Saint Margaret's Cave.
The origins of Dunfermline are unknown, although its name, meaning "fortress by the crooked stream", indicates that it was a fortified settlement. For centuries, it played a central role in Scottish political life. King Malcolm III, also known as Malcolm Canmore, made it his capital after he married Queen (later Saint) Margaret there about 1070. The city remained the capital of Scotland until the 1603 Act of Union.
Queen Margaret (1045-1093) was married to Malcolm for almost twenty-five years; her death followed his by only a few days. She bore six sons and two daughters. Three sons ruled as kings of Scotland—Edgar, Alexander I, and David I (later saint)—while a daughter, Matilda, became the queen of Henry I of England.
Margaret, an inspirational monarch of great Christian devotion, undertook many works of charity. She protected orphans, provided for the poor, visited prisoners in her husband's dungeons, cleansed the sores of lepers, and washed the feet of beggars. She encouraged and enabled the founding of monasteries, churches, and hostels. Her excellent education served Scotland well, for under her influence the Scottish court became known as a place of culture and learning.
An advocate of church reform, Margaret supported revival of observances that had lapsed into disuse, including Lenten fasts, Easter communion, and refraining from work on Sundays. She also had Iona re-built following its destruction by Viking raiders.
Queen Margaret frequently retired to a secluded cave on the banks of a stream near the royal residence for private prayer and mediation. A (possibly apocryphal) story has it that King Malcolm began to imagine his wife was seeing a lover. Full of suspicion one day, he followed her to the cave, only to overhear her praying for his safety.
Located near the bottom of a small ravine, the site known as St Margaret's Cave has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries. It was threatened with destruction in 1962 when the Town Council proposed to bury the stream and fill in the ravine in order to build a car park. After a public outcry, the cave was preserved and is now located 84 steps underground from the adjacent parking lot. The pathway is lined with panels displaying information about her and the fortunes of the cave over the centuries.
The photo at right shows the StatWife and StatDaughter outside the stone building that marks the cave's entrance, adjacent to the Chambers Street car park.
Click on photos for larger views.
This is the text of the cave's first information panel.
Margaret, a Saxon princess, married Malcolm Canmore King of the Scots about 1070, soon after she came here with other members of her family following William the Conqueror's successful invasion of England. Queen Margaret had a profound impact on the Scottish church and is still venerated for her piety and good works.
Margaret was born in Hungary where her father lived as an exiled member of the old English royal family. Her grandfather was King Edmund Ironside of England who died in 1016 after years of dynastic conflict.
Her father Edward, then a young boy, was exiled by Ironside's rival Cnut. He spent some years in Scandinavia, then traveled to the Russian court of Kiev before settling in southern Hungary about 1047. He married Agatha, a relative of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III; their first child, Margaret, was born about this time.
Her great uncle Edward had become King of England in 1042 and fifteen years later, as part of complicated dynastic manoeuvering, Margaret's father was able to return to England because he had a strong claim to the English throne. Margaret thus experienced the English court and received education from her uncle, later saint, Edward the Confessor, who built Westminster Abbey.
Margaret's father died soon after their arrival in England, leaving her younger brother Edgar as "atheling" or prince. When the Confessor died in 1066 there were several claimants to the throne, and the situation was resolved only after William the Conqueror defeated his rival Harold at the Battle of Hastings. Edgar and his family, including Margaret, had to leave; they went to Scotland where Margaret was to marry Malcolm Canmore, at Dunfermline.
The next photo shows the terminus of the underground pathway, a chamber 10 feet long by 8 feet wide by 8 feet high with a statue of Margaret in prayer.
Saint Margaret was canonised by Pope Innocent IV in 1250.
Margaret loved Dunfermline so much that she decided to establish a religious community there. She endowed a Benedictine Priory and the Archbishop of Canterbury sent some monks to form its initial core. Her son King David I expanded and enriched the priory, raising it to the status of an abbey. In 1128, he commenced construction of a magnificent abbey church. The only part that survives today is the Norman nave.
In 1303, King Edward I of England destroyed the original monastery buildings, but the church was not touched. Scotland’s King Robert the Bruce provided generous financial support for re-building the monastery.
Malcolm and Margaret also built a royal palace adjacent to the abbey. It has now fallen into ruins, but the remaining walls indicate the magnificence of the royal residence. Three kings were born there: David II and James I of Scotland and Charles I of England; the latter was the last monarch born in Scotland.
At the Reformation, the church and monastery were sacked and then allowed to fall into disrepair. The medieval nave was restored for use as a parish church in 1570, when large flying buttresses were added to stabilise that part of the building. The rest of the church gradually collapsed during subsequent centuries.
A new parish church was built in 1821 on the end of the Norman nave. The east tower, shown in photo at left, has the words "King Robert the Bruce" around its crown.
Dunfermline Abbey is the final resting place of many of Scotland's rulers and royalty, including Margaret, Malcolm, David I, and Robert the Bruce.
The remains of Robert the Bruce were found in 1819 during construction of the new Abbey Church. He was reinterred in front of the pulpit in the centre of the church, 560 years after his death. His grave is marked by a huge brass plate, shown at right.
Outside the church are the ruins of the shrine of Margaret. Nearby is the grave and monument of Ralph Erskine (1685-1752), who served as an assistant minister here until 1740 when he was deposed from the Church of Scotland. He then joined the Secession Church founded by his brother Ebenezer and others. (Ebenezer is buried at Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling.)
The Abbey's website is here.
Dunfermline is also the birthplace of American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1918). Click here for the website of the local Carnegie Hall.
Here is a map of the Dunfermline area.
Links to all my blog posts about British churches and Christian sites can be accessed through the box located at the top of the page.
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