DUNFERMLINE, a royal burgh and parish, Fifeshire, Scot land (Gaelic, the fort on the crooked Linn"). Pop. (191 I) 28,103, 34,954. The parish was enlarged in 1914, and now includes Rosyth. It is situated on high ground 3 m. from the shore of the Firth of Forth, with two stations on the L.N.E.R.—Lower Dun fermline 164 m., and Upper Dunfermline 19a m. N.W. of Edin burgh, via the Forth Bridge. The town is intersected from north to south by Pittencrieff Glen, a deep, picturesque ravine, from which the town derives its name and at the bottom of which flows Lyne Burn.
The early Celtic monks known as Culdees had an establishment here ; but its fame dates from the marriage of Malcolm Canmore and his queen Margaret, solemnized in the town in 1070. The king then lived in a tower on a mound surrounded on three sides by the glen. A fragment of this castle exists in Pittencrieff Park, a little west of the later palace. Under the influence of Queen Margaret in 1075 the foundations were laid of the Benedictine priory, raised to an abbey by David I. Robert Bruce gave the town its charter in 1322.
The staple industry is the manufacture of table linen. The weaving of damask was introduced in 1 718 by James Blake, who had learned the secret of the process in the workshops at Drums heugh near Edinburgh. Other industries are dyeing and bleaching, brass and iron founding, engineering works, rope-making and the making of soap and fireclay, whilst there are numerous collieries in the immediate vicinity.
Public edifices, besides churches, include 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 156o), school of science and art and two hospitals. Andrew Car negie (1835-1919) was a well-known benefactor of Dunfermline. 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 worth f 500,000 (increased by f 2 5o,00o in 1911) 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. A statue of Carnegie has been placed in the park, and Dunfermline is now the headquarters of all the Carnegie trusts. The town is the seat of the sheriff-substitute for Western Fife; it is governed by a provost, tellies and council, and, with Cowdenbeath, Inverkeithing and Lochgelvy (the Dunfermline group) combines in returning a member to parliament.
With the exception of Iona, Dunfermline Abbey has received more of Scotland's royal dead than any other place in the kingdom. Within its precincts were buried Queen Margaret and Malcolm Canmore; their sons Edgar and Alexander I., with his queen; David I. and his two queens; Malcolm IV. ; Alexander III., with his first wife and their sons David and Alexander; Robert Bruce, with his queen Elizabeth and their daughter Matilda ; and Anna bella Drummond, wife of Robert III. and mother of James I. Bruce's heart rests in Melrose, but his bones lie in Dunfermline Abbey, where (after the discovery of the skeleton in 1818) they were reinterred below the pulpit of the New church. In 1891 the pulpit was moved back and a monumental brass inserted in the floor to indicate the royal vault. The tomb of St. Margaret and Malcolm, within the ruined walls of the Lady chapel, was restored and enclosed by command of Queen Victoria. During the winter of 1303 the court of Edward I. was held in the abbey, and on his departure next year most of the buildings were burned. When the Reformers attacked the abbey church in March 156o, they spared the nave, which served as the parish church till the 19th century, and now forms the vestibule of the New church (1821), a building in the Perpendicular style. The old building was a fine example of simple and massive Norman, and has a beautiful doorway in its west front. Another rich Norman doorway was exposed in the south wall in 1903. The building is maintained by the commis sioners of woods and forests. Of the monastery there still remains the south wall of the refectory, with a fine window. The palace, a favourite residence of many of the kings, occupying a pic turesque position near the ravine, was of considerable size, judg ing from the south-west wall, which is all that is left of it; the last royal tenant was Charles II., who occupied it just before the battle of Pitreavie (July 20, 165o), which took place 3 m. to the south-west, and here also he signed the National League and Covenant.