Field Visit
Date 15 April 1929
Event ID 1098653
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1098653
The Abbot's House, Dunfermline.
Two adjacent tenements, No. 21 Maygate and No. 11 Abbot Street, lying to the north of the churchyard are together known as the Abbot's House. They were built in the late 16th century and originally formed a single structure which consisted of a long rectangular main block, three main storeys in height, running east and west, with a stair-tower projecting near the centre oft he north side and another from the southeastern angle; turret stairs corbelled out within two of the re-entrant angles gave access to chambers in the upper part of the towers. Towards the close of the 17th century there was some alteration and extension. The space on each side of the northern stair-tower was filled in and the present entrance to 21 Maygate formed in the tower itself with a large lintel above it bearing the couplet: SEN . VORD . IS .THRALL. AND. THOCHT . IS. FRE / KElP. VEILL . THYTONGE. I . COINSELL . THE. The south-eastern stair-tower was made to serve as the abutment of a new wing.
Internal alterations made then included the removal of the vaulting in the chamber immediately opposite the new entrance and the insertion of fireplaces there and in the kitchen adjoining. At the same time there was some reconstruction of the top storey and probably also of the dormers looking southward. Both the original house and the additions have to some extent been modernised. The final stage was its division into two.
The masonry is of rubble, harled. Most of the windows have been enlarged. Towards the garden is the south-western re-entrant angle with the stair-turret and its corbelling. In the stair wall is a small loop aligned along the main south wall.
The basement floor of the main block contained four chambers. All of them were originally vaulted, but, as already stated, the vaulting has in one case been removed. The eastern chamber is part of the eastern house. There are four chambers on each of the upper floors, but the only features of interest remaining are the moulded stone fireplaces on the top floor. Within the eastern house in the secondary east wing is a good scale-and-platt staircase with solid newel. It rises to the first floor only.
RCAHMS 1933, visited 15 April 1929.
