Phone +44 1383 733266 | ||
 | ||
Address Maygate, Dunfermline KY12 7NE, UK Similar Andrew Carnegie Birthplac, Pittencrieff Park, Scottish Vintage Bus Muse, Kincardine Bridge, Pittencrieff House Museum | ||
Abbot House is a former heritage centre located on the Maygate in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. It lies in the shadow of Dunfermline's great abbey church. Located in a building with a 16th-century core, Abbot House offers a view of Scotland's history from early beginnings through the 19th century, provided to visitors by guided tour. The heritage centre closed in August 2015 after attempts, by Abbot House Heritage Centre Trust, to find alternative funding for the centre failed.
Contents
History
As the oldest surviving building within Dunfermline town, and a survivor of the Great Fire of Dunfermline in 1624, the building is indicative of the changing styles of Scottish architecture from the 16th to the 20th centuries.
The earliest phase of the house was a two-story rectangular block of at least two storeys, built into the existing precinct wall. This house incorporated a small Z-plan tower house. The tour of the house reveals many early features of the changing form of the house, including crow-stepped gabling from an early exterior wall within the 'Industrial Room', and a number of excavated fireplaces and ranges now within the cafe area.
Highlights include a frescoed wall painting, dated to 1571, which may depict scenes from a middle-Scots translation of Virgil, in the principal room of the first floor of the house, as well as a 14th-century tracery window.
Trial excavations were begun in the garden of the house in 1988, followed by further work in 1992, and again in 1993 and 1994, excavating eleven separate areas in total. Excavations within the garden in the 1990s revealed various finds, including a very large dog, likely a deer or wolfhound, that measured approximately 86 cm at the shoulder. Other finds included a selection of medieval glazed and unglazed pottery sherds, costume fittings and personal accessories, and ironwork. Two ceramic 'counters', associated with medieval and early modern games and gambling, and a selection of clay pipes, were found on site. Early coinage, from the 14th to the 17th century, was also discovered.
Motto
The front of the house bears the motto 'Sen vord is thrall and thocht is fre : Keip veill thy tonge I coinsell the' (Since word is enthrallment and thought is freedom : keep well thy tongue I counsel thee) (see illustration).
The motto was set there for Robert Pitcairn, Commendator of Dunfermline (d 1584).
Facilities
The facility includes a shop and a cafe. It also offers interactive activities for children and families on the third Saturday of each month. All closed as of August 2015.