This website provides an introduction to Dunfermline’s rich history for anyone who takes an interest in the past – local historians, students of all ages, family historians, historical researchers, nostalgia addicts – anyone in fact who wants to know more about this historic burgh. The site is maintained by Dunfermline Heritage Community Projects (DHCP) a group of local history enthusiasts and researchers, which welcomes new members who want to play an active part in recording and preserving Dunfermline’s unique heritage.  

Dunfermline’s recorded history stretches back for nearly a thousand years, during which the town has known both prosperity and decline. In its early days it was a favourite residence of royalty and a great religious and pilgrimage centre. After the Reformation in 1560 it suffered two centuries of decline, accelerated by the disastrous fire of 1624 which destroyed much of the town. Recovery began in the eighteenth century with the advent of damask linen-weaving and reached its climax in the nineteenth century, when many other industries came to the town and it shared in the prosperity brought to the region by coal mining.

The twentieth century brought renewed troubles. Damask table linen went out of fashion when the servants who laundered it became scarce. Heavy industry faded away everywhere and the demise of the Fife coal fields in the 1970s and the closure of Rosyth Naval Dockyard in the 1990s removed the last major employers from the area. However, employment gradually returned, albeit on a smaller scale, and the new millennium has seen an upturn in the town’s fortunes and an influx of new residents, attracted by its closeness to Edinburgh and other centres of employment.

This site will eventually cover the entire spectrum of Dunfermline's life and work over the past 900 years. It is divided into four main areas, which are accessed from the navigation bar at the top of the page (Images, Living, Researching, Playing). Each of the four areas has its own introductory page, with navigation buttons in the right-hand side bar linked to its related pages.  There is a Home button at the top left-hand side of each page and the Home page can also be accessed by clicking on the main heading - 'Dunfermline Heritage Roots'.

Update - 26 June 2008

'Noteable People' added to 'Living in the Past' section

Short biographies of Andrew Carnegie, Daniel Thomson, Robert Gilfillan and Sir John Struthers