Dunfermline Abbey and Aberdour Castle

Our streak of sunny weather came to a close on Saturday afternoon, and a band of ominous clouds rolled in just as we rolled out of the driveway for another afternoon of castle touring. We began with a drive of about an hour to the nearby town of Dunfermline in order to tour the abbey and the castle there. Our guidebook warned that the sites were worth a visit despite their being located in “an otherwise unappealing large regional town,” and I would say that’s accurate, though we were quite impressed with our first encounter with a space-age-like “pay loo” in the city center. Dunfermline Abbey is sited on the location of a Benedictine priory founded by Queen Margaret in the 11^th century, and is the burial site of six Scottish kings, including Robert the Bruce who is buried somewhere under the pulpit (though I believe his heart was removed and taken elsewhere during the Crusades, upon his request…before his death, of course!). I hadn’t mentioned this to Emma before the trip because she’s not a big fan of traipsing over the burial ground of dead people in general, so I was a bit dismayed when we first arrived and I noticed that the words “King Robert the Bruce” have been elaborately and largely carved of stone at the top of the Abbey. She stopped in her tracks when she saw it and I was sure she was about to refuse to enter. Instead, she said, “Well, that’s kind of dumb. I guess you can’t hide from the English when your name’s carved into your church like that!” Good point, though I later learned that the name was added in the 19^th century, which is why I suppose the typeface is a bit evocative of the Hollywood sign.

We passed through the Abbey, and it was quite clear that several bodies were just underfoot, so Emma hustled me through pretty quickly. Interestingly, no one really knows exactly where any of the bodies are buried, so the plaques that commemorate each one are pretty generic, and the floor, which is flat marble, doesn’t have any signs of buried bodies below. The stained glass windows are the real attraction here, and one depicts Robert the Bruce standing over what is supposed to be the Devil, but is generally understood to be an Englishman! John followed us out, and quickly found a smooth, gun-shaped stick, so hustled over to an area of the palace ruins next door to find a wall behind which to hide, sniper-style. The ruins themselves were sprawling, so we spent about an hour wandering around and gazing out all the windows at Pittencrief parkbelow (which was land donated by Andrew Carnegie, who was born in Dunfermline). Though there’s not a lot left of the building, the ruins demonstrate that it was immense when it was built in the 16^th century for James VI, and was also often visited by wealthy members of the royal court. We had the whole place to ourselves for most of the time, and were ready to go anyway when another family arrived, and the oldest boy charged forward and said

something that sounded alarmingly like “Outta my way cuz I have diarrhea…” Time to go!

Our next stop was Aberdour, a town on the sea about 20 minutes away and home to Aberdour Castle, which was built in 1342.The castle is known for having hosted Robert the Bruce and for a painted wooden ceiling in a newer section, and also for its terraced gardens. The kids appreciated it mostly because, like other castles, most of it is in ruins, but unlike other castles, a big section

of the ruins appear as if it fell off overnight, rather than over the centuries, and one tower is still intact but laying sideways on top of another section. John “unearthed” this part of the ruins first (since he had charged ahead in order to brandish the smooth, gun-shaped stick that was still with us…), and it literally stopped him in his tracks! Since it’s Scotland, where guardrails and safety rope are not commonly in use, the kids were able to climb right up. After I convinced them to (slowly and carefully!) get down, we wandered around for a bit, but the clouds were thickening and the ruins were pretty creepy as the day darkened. Emma had stopped going into any of the covered rooms, and after a bit more wandering the three of us agreed, especially when the lights went out as we were standing in the kitchens of the castle. Again, time to go!

When we got home, I set about making "tea" in order to warm us all up (we had stopped at the beach in Aberdour on the way home, and still hadn't recovered from the blowing wind!) John took David's computer into the living room and started to make videos (one of his favorite past-times, which is why David's computer has no more memory!). He apparently took inspiration from our spooky castle trip to make up some ghost stories, but they turned out to be so scary that he even freaked himself out! Here's one of the videos we found on the computer later that night!