Dunfermline - Abbey

The Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Trinity and St. Margaret was founded in 1128 by King David I of Scotland. It was based on an earlier priory dating to the reign of his father, King Malcolm Canmore and Queen, St. Margaret.

In the decades following its founding, the abbey received substantial endowments, as evidenced by the consecration of 26 altars. The abbey was an important destination for pilgrims, as it housed the reliquary and cult of St. Margaret.

Despite much of the monastic buildings being destroyed by the troops of Edward I in 1303, and the turmoil during the Scottish Reformation, when the abbey church experienced an iconoclasm in 1559 and was looted in 1560, there are still substantial remains

The nave served as the parish church till the 19th century, and now forms the vestibule of a new church. This edifice, in the Perpendicular style, opened for public worship in 1821, occupies the site of the ancient chancel and transepts. Also of the monastery there still remains the south wall of the refectory. Next to the abbey is the ruin of Dunfermline Palace, also part of the original abbey complex and connected to it via the gatehouse.

Detail of the surviving old part of the church