Day 3 was a public transit extravaganza. We took a city bus to the Edinburgh train station and then a train from Edinburgh across the Firth of Forth to
Inverkeithing where rail repairs necessitated a transfer to a coach to
Dunfermline, the medieval capital of Scotland. A suspension bridge spanning the Firth of Forth is visible in the background of this picture:
Our initial destination was
Dunfermline Abbey, though not the 19th-century shrine to Robert the Bruce visible in this picture, ...
Next door to the church yard is
Abbott House, where "Lady Anne", as she is
affectionately known to the locals, lived from 1671-1699 after her husband, Sir James Halkett, died:
Unfortunately, Abbott House is now closed to the public, so we weren't able to see the "Anne Halkett" room, but I took several pictures of the outside:
An index to the church cemetery informed us that the Halkett family burial plot was relocated in 1818 either in or near the "oldest part of [the] church":
Perhaps because we happened to arrive on the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Robert the Bruce's tomb, the door of the medieval church was ajar ...
... and we located the Halkett family memorial:
Our next stop was the
Dunfermline Golf Club, a couple miles down the road in Crossford. Anne Halkett lived in the clubhouse--then the Halkett family manor--from 1656-1671:
More information about Pitfirrane Castle can be found
here and
here.
One of the staff invited us up to see the old private dining room, whose wood paneling was apparently taken from Dunfermline Abbey--presumably, if the story is true, around the time the Abbey and Palace were
abandoned in the mid-to-late 17th century:
Before retracing our steps all the way back to Edinburgh, we stopped at the Dunfermline Tesco cafe for what was easily the best food we had on the entire trip:
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