Dunfermline Abbey

The church occupies the site of the ancient chancel and transepts of a large medieval Benedictine abbey, which was sacked in 1560 during the Scottish Reformation and permitted to fall into disrepair. Part of the old abbey church continued in use at that time and some parts of the abbey infrastructure still remain.

Dunfermline Abbey is one of Scotland's most important cultural sites. The Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Trinity and St Margaret, was founded in 1128 by King David I of Scotland, but the monastic establishment was based on an earlier foundation dating back to the reign of his father King Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, i. e. "Malcolm III" or "Malcolm Canmore" (regnat 1058-93), and his queen, St Margaret of Scotland.  The foundations of the earliest church, namely the Church of the Holy Trinity, are under the superb Romanesque nave built in the 12th century.

After the discovery of the Robert the Bruce's skeleton in 1818, his bones were reinterred with fitting pomp below the pulpit of the New church (attached to the Abbey). In 1891, the pulpit was moved back and a monumental brass inserted in the floor to indicate the royal vault. 

 Notable ceremonies and burials
•Saint Margaret of Scotland was buried here in 1093; on 19 June 1250 following her Canonization her remains were disinterred and placed in a reliquary at the high altar. Her husband Malcolm's remains were also disinterred, and buried next to Margaret
• Duncan II of Scotland 1094
• Edgar of Scotland was buried here in 1107
• Both Alexander I of Scotland 1124, and his queen Sybilla de Normandy 1122, were buried here
• David I of Scotland was buried here (1153) along with his queen Maud, Countess of Huntingdon (1130)
• Malcolm IV of Scotland was buried here in 1165
• Gille Brigte, Earl of Angus
• Adam, Earl of Angus
• Gille Críst, Earl of Angus
• Donnchadh, Earl of Angus
• Alexander III of Scotland (1286), was buried here, with his first wife Margaret of England (1275) and their sons David of Scotland (1281) and Alexander of Scotland (1284)
• Elizabeth de Burgh, wife of Robert I of Scotland, was buried here in 1327
• Robert the Bruce was buried, in 1329, in the choir, now the site of the present parish church. Bruce’s heart rests in Melrose, but his bones lie in Dunfermline Abbey
• Matilda of Scotland, daughter of Robert I of Scotland, was buried here in 1353
• Anabella Drummond, wife of Robert III and mother of James I was buried here in 1401
• Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany was buried here in 1420
• Bishop James Bruce, buried in 1447