THE photographs in this week’s trip feature one of the oldest surviving houses in Dunfermline, Abbot House, situated in the shadow of Dunfermline Abbey.

Serving a number of different functions over its long history, it is best remembered as Abbot House Heritage Centre, which operated from 1996 until its closure in 2015.

Principally set up to tell the story of the house itself, it also covered the rich history of Dunfermline from Pictish times right up to the 1960s, also telling Scotland’s story in microcosm, a colourful past peopled by such characters as Robert the Bruce, William Wallace, St Margaret, Robert Henryson and Andrew Carnegie.

The first photograph shows one of the many rooms that covered the various aspects of that history, ‘The Presence Chamber’. The figure of Dunfermline poet Robert Henryson, often referred to as ‘Scotland’s Chaucer’, can be seen in the room in front of the tracery window.

When Abbot House was undergoing renovations, this window was uncovered and subsequently allowed dating of the building to stretch back to at least the 15th century. The murals on either side of the window depicted the mediaeval story of ‘The Testament of Cresseid’, Henryson’s masterpiece narrative poem which was a sequel to Chaucer’s own ‘Troilus and Criseyde’ about the Trojan War.

Our next photograph shows another important facet of Dunfermline’s industrial past, mining. Fife was one of Scotland’s main coal mining areas for hundreds of years, stretching back to the early days of Dunfermline Abbey when the monks were granted concessions to mine for coal in and around Dunfermline, and the heritage centre recognised and highlighted this important aspect of the town’s social history in its ‘Industrial Room’.

One of the unique aspects of Abbot House was that large numbers of volunteers gave up their time to staff the centre which operated every day of the year with the sole exception of Christmas Day, and our next photograph shows just some of those people gathered in the gardens outside. They contributed greatly to the warm and welcoming visitor experience and provided the mainspring of the Abbot’s Kitchen serving coffee and light meals, the gift shop selling Scottish gifts and books, and also guided visitors knowledgeably around the Abbot House displays.

Sadly, the closure of Abbot House as an award-winning heritage centre in 2015 has left Dunfermline without a dedicated resource outlining the rich and unique historical role the town has played over the centuries at the centre of Dunfermline and Scotland’s story.

However, on a more positive note, although the variety of exhibits in the wonderful rooms have been dismantled and disposed of, the building has re-opened as a shop with other roles envisaged for it going forward, including arresting the ongoing damage and deterioration of the fabric and façade of the building which gave rise to its description of ‘The Pink Hoose’.

We report on the next phase of work at Abbot House on page 12 of this week's edition.

The final photograph shows workmen putting the finishing touches to one of the garden features in the popular outside garden area shortly after it opened in 1996.

More photographs like these can be seen in Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries once it reopens to the public, as well at facebook.com/olddunfermline

With thanks to Frank Connelly