A history of Abbot House from art school and GP surgery to Nana and Papa’s home!

THE photographs in this week’s trip down memory lane focus on one of the oldest surviving buildings in Dunfermline, Abbot House, in the Maygate.

During the renovation of the building in 1992, while it was undergoing extensive work in preparation for its opening as a heritage centre, an original tracery window was uncovered which dated the house back to at least 1460.

The first of our photographs doesn’t go quite as far back as the 15th century but it does show what the rear of the house and its garden looked like in the early years of the 20th century.

Shona Wilkinson remembers it from the time before its renovation into a heritage centre, when her grandparents lived in the building: “My Nana and Papa were caretakers of Abbot House in the 1970s and 1980s.

“They lived in the bottom level of the house and I used to stay with them nearly every weekend and school holidays.

“Many happy family memories there. Papa used to lock the gates in the

Abbey as well. It was a bit scary going out our gate at the back of the garden and directly into the Abbey grounds, especially in the dark.”

Barbara Ford also remembers Abbot House when part of it was used as a doctors surgery.

“I remember it well,” she said. “It was my doctor’s surgery and I keep thinking about all the times I sat in there waiting to see the doctor with no idea of the significance of the place.”

Our next photograph shows what the building looked like before it was given a pink wash, prior to its opening as a heritage centre.

Abbot House opened to the public after a period of restoration and development by Elspeth King and Michael Donnelly (formerly of the People’s Palace, Glasgow).

It was described as an experience not to be missed and likened to Dr Who’s Tardis, as its exterior was misleading as to the extent of its contents.

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.

In its time the building had a variety of uses – a laird’s mansion, an iron foundry and an art school.

Our next image is a view of it by Dunfermline painter Adam Westwood.

He would have been very familiar with this area as it is thought he was born in nearby Guildhall Street in 1844.

Westwood lived until 1924 and left an extensive portfolio of work depicting Dunfermline in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

One of the most popular attractions of Abbot House was the cafe and outside seated garden, now open again to the public, and in the final photograph we can see work taking place to create the garden by members of a popular BBC gardening programme, the hit squad from ‘The Beechgrove Garden’.

It can be enjoyed once more after the most recent renovation, which cost around £600,000 and was covered by the Press earlier this month.

More photographs like these can be seen in Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries and also at facebook.com/ olddunfermline