God Bless Andrew Carnegie

Today we went to Dunfermline, the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie. Good ole' AC. There are ruins of an abbey and palace here in addition to a lovely park and more modern abbey. More modern as in it was completed in 1821 as opposed to the old abbey whose ruins date back to the 1100's. Apparently workers found the body of Robert the Bruce during the new abbey’s construction. The architect was so excited about the find, he overzealously decided to put “King Robert the Bruce” up on the top of the abbey. It looked a little too Vegas for my taste. I half expected neon lights to flicker up there! But the rest of the abbey is spectacular. The old palace and abbey ruins next door is equally impressive with the old stone staircases and window frames. The whole place overlooks a nice river that runs through the town. Adjacent to abbeys is a huge park, Pittencrieff park. Andrew Carnegie bought the whole estate with a mansion on the property and made it open to the public. Apparently as a child he was not allowed on the property due to his grandfather leading a band of men to tear down a wall on the property in attempts to make the Lord of the estate allow the town dwellers access into the abbey and part of the grounds of the estate. What sweet revenge it must have been to buy the whole place and donate it to the town! It is truly a gorgeous park, with a nice greenhouse, winding wooded walkways, lavish lawns and gardens (check out our pictures of thistles, the official emblem of Scotland). As luck would have it, today was an enviro/flower show in the park, so there was a huge tent with lots of cool stuff inside. This was quite nice since it was raining and a little cold. But as many people say here.... There's no bad weather, only inadequate clothing! But anyhow, the park mansion is now a museum free to the public. We really loved this park and are considering looking at Dunfermline when we start our house hunting here. It only a 30 minute train ride to Edinburgh across one of the most famous bridges in the UK, the Forth Rail Bridge.