Pittencrieff Park

The following is from the Historic Environment Scotland Gardens and Designed Landscapes Inventory. For the most up-to-date Inventory entry, please visit the Historic Environment Scotland website:

http://portal.historic-scotlan...

Location and Setting

Pittencrieff Park is situated on the west side of the town of Dunfermline; the park is bounded by roads, and the main access road from the north is the A994. The park slopes gently to the south but is steeply incised by the glen on its eastern side. The Tower Burn flows through the glen and around the ancient fortress of Malcolm Canmore's Tower and, in fact, the name of Dunfermline derives from 'the fort on the crooked burn'. It has been suggested that the burn was diverted around the fortress to form a moat and that the glen is artificially deepened through the early coalmining activities of the monks of the former Dunfermline Abbey. The Abbey and Palace ruins form a magnificent backdrop to the north-east of Pittencrieff Park and views can be obtained southwards to the Forth Road Bridge and the Lothian hills. Views inward to the Park are limited by its high surrounding walls.

Pittencrieff House is set in the centre of the Park just south of the Tower Hill with extensive views to the south. The designed landscape extends over 76 acres within the boundaries of the Park today, and appears to cover a larger area than in 1750 when Roy's map was produced. At that time, shelterbelts extended around fields to the north and west of the Park, but the designed landscape was concentrated on a formal layout surrounding the house and up to the stables where a drive left to the north-west corner of the Park. By 1853 the north entrance had been moved to its central position; the tree belts to the west and south of the house had been removed and the shelter planting put in to the south-west of the house. The formal layout had been changed to a picturesque design with the north park planted up with individual parkland trees. The Laird's Garden is a remnant from the previous formal layout, but its square shape has been rounded. The layout of the Park has remained basically the same since it became a public park in 1903 with the addition of the park buildings, ornamentation and pathways. There are 76 acres (31ha) contained in the Park.

Landscape Components

Architectural Features

The house was built in 1610 and heightened in 1731; it is a three-storey rectangular mansion house, harled with margins and is listed A. It was remodelled inside and restored in 1911 by Sir Robert Lorimer. The early 19th century dovecot is listed B. The Ambition Fountain to the west of the house was sculpted by Richard Goulden in 1908 and is listed B. Richard Goulden also sculpted the Andrew Carnegie statue raised by public subscription in 1914, listed B, and the fountain within the Music Pavilion. The Louise Carnegie Gates were put up in 1928 at the east entrance and are large wrought-iron gates, listed B. The Tower Bridge carried the Dunfermline to Stirling road across the Glen and is a striking double bridge listed B. On Tower Hill are the remains of Malcolm Canmore's Tower, a scheduled monument, listed C(S), and popularly regarded as Macbeth's stronghold before Malcolm's time. Malcolm Canmore's son Alexander I laid the foundations of the nearby Abbey Buildings of which the Guest House later became the royal residence. However, it was not known as the Royal Palace until it was largely rebuilt and gifted to Anne of Denmark on her wedding to James VI in the 1590s. Charles I was born here in 1600. It was abandoned when James VI moved south to England in 1603 but its facade is still a prominent feature from the Park. Dunfermline Abbey church is the final resting place of Robert the Bruce. New park buildings were introduced in the early 1900s and included the Music Pavilion, Peacock Restaurant and Aviary. A large range of glasshouses built in 1913 were replaced in 1973 by the present Floral Hall. A small hexagonal rabbit house is a recent addition.

Parkland

The former parks are now under regularly mown grass. Paths have been laid through the park from the entrances to the aviary in the south-west, the pavilion in the west, to the children's playground and playing fields in the north and to the Andrew Carnegie statue. Two childrens' paddling pools have been put in to the south-west of the house, south of the Rock Garden. The house is in use during the summer months as a local history and costume museum. The former stable-court has been demolished and replaced with the Italian Garden. There are two toilet blocks in the Park. A Model Traffic Area for children to learn road sense was put in at the north of the Park in 1950. A Demonstration Garden has been on trial in the last few years but has now been abandoned; it is surrounded by hedges. The maze (added in the 1970s) was badly vandalised and has been removed. There were never many trees in the southern half of the Park, but many have been lost from the north half. New trees, mainly beech and oak, were put in during the early 1900s.

Water Features

The Glen' is the local name for the Tower Burn glen as it meanders around Malcolm Canmore's Tower and through the Park. Photographs of it in the early 1900s show steep, shaly slopes held by a retaining wall above the burn, with waste-pipes and rubbish tips down the slopes. The watercourse was impure at this time. Following Mawson's suggestion, the glen was landscaped with rockwork and steps to make the paths safe and attractive. A Japanese garden was subsequently put in (contrary to Mawson's & Geddes' views) and a small summerhouse remains in this area although much of the ornamental planting has gone. The thatched roof of the summerhouse was burned by vandals and has been replaced with tiles. The waterflow in the burn has reduced over the years and the cascades are not as obvious as they were designed to be. The Glen is not so intensively managed as it used to be in recent years; some of the plant material has become overgrown with weeds and many of the glen-side trees have been lost with consequent effects on the slope stability.

The Gardens

The Rock Garden was put in to the west of the house in the 1900s and was planted out again in the 1950s. A five year programme to replace some of the plant material and widen the pathways is in progress. It has been designed to provide spring and autumn colour and contains some interesting trees and shrubs, including Metasequoias, Embothrium, Cryptomerias and Eucryphia.

A small formal garden has been laid out immediately to the west of the house focussing on the 'Ambition' statue. It is laid out with stone flags, lawn and island beds, with roses and herbaceous plants.

The former kitchen garden lies to the east of the house and offices. The Floral House, a large range of hothouses, was introduced in 1973 replacing an earlier range of tropical houses and it contains palms and also benches for colourful displays. Prior to 1913 the glasshouse range was on the north-east rather than the north wall of the garden; both Mawson and Geddes had suggested removing this and building a new Conservatory on the present site. The Laird's Garden is laid out today as a formal garden with well-trimmed lawns and island beds planted out with bedding plants and old varieties of roses. A central walk along the west-east axis, known as the Laird's Walk, has been maintained over the years and is kept as a green path with herbaceous borders. An ornamental gate leads to the park at the west end. A path leads from the east of this garden into the Glen. The original yew hedges are kept up around the edge of the garden.