Dunfermline

Sister cities

• Trondheim
• Wilhelmshaven
• Vichy

History

There have been various interpretations of the name, "Dunfermline". The first element, "dun" translated from Gaelic, has been accepted as a (fortified) hill, and is assumed to be referring to the rocky outcrop at the site of Malcolm Canmore's Tower in Pittencrieff Glen (now Pittencrieff Park). The rest of the name is problematic. A cropmark which is understood to have been used as a possible mortuary enclosure has been found at Deanpark House, also near the town. By the time of the Bronze Age, the area was beginning to show some importance. Important finds included a bronze axe in Wellwood and a gold torc from the Parish Churchyard. The first historic record for Dunfermline was made in the 11th century. According to the fourteenth-century chronicler, John of Fordun, Malcolm III married his second bride, the Anglo-Hungarian princess Saint Margaret, at the church in Dunfermline between 1068 and 1070; the ceremony was performed by Fothad, the last Celtic bishop of St Andrews. Malcolm III established Dunfermline as a new seat for royal power in the mid-11th century and initiated changes that eventually made the township the de facto capital of Scotland for much of the period until the assassination of James I in 1437. Following her marriage to King Malcolm III, Queen Margaret encouraged her husband to convert the small culdee chapel into a church for Benedictine monks. The founding of this new church of Dunfermline was inaugurated around 1072, but was not recorded in the town's records. The foundations of the church evolved into an Abbey in 1128, under the reign of their son, David I. A total of eighteen royals, including seven Kings, were buried here from Queen Margaret in 1093 to Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany in 1420. During the Wars of Scottish Independence,…

Geography

Dunfermline is at on the coastal fringe of Fife. Temperatures in Dunfermline, much like the rest of Scotland, are relatively moderate given its northern latitude. Fife is a peninsula, between the Firth of Tay to the north, Firth of Forth to the south and the North Sea to the east. Summers are relatively cool and the warming of the water over the summer, results in warm winters. Average annual temperatures in Dunfermline range from a maximum of to a minimum of . The town is geologically separated from the area to the north by the Cleish Hills.

Most-observed species

• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  13,077
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  11,659
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  11,050
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  9,716
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  9,525
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  8,446
• Herring Gull

  Larus argentatus Pontoppidan, 1763 · Aves
  8,437
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  7,210

Most recent

• M 3.5 — 2026-04-16
  42 km WNW of Comrie, United Kingdom
• M 3.9 — 2025-10-20
  29 km NW of Comrie, United Kingdom
• M 2.5 — 2018-08-30
  1 km ENE of Gourock, United Kingdom
• M 2.5 — 2005-12-31
  3 km WSW of Auchterarder, United Kingdom
• M 2.5 — 2003-06-20
  12 km NNW of Balfron, United Kingdom
• M 2.8 — 2003-06-20
  14 km NNW of Balfron, United Kingdom