The Palace of Dunfermline

Adjoining the abbey are the ruins of the Palace of Dunfermline- originally the guest chambers of the monastery-repaired and en-larged after the Reformation. One stretch of Pittencrieff Glen is shadowed by the remains of the south-west wall, 205 feet long and 59 feet high, with eight powerful buttresses, cross-mullioned windows and one oriel over which in 1812, when the ruins were being re-paired, 16th-century carving representing the Annunciation was dis-covered. One of the finest remnants of the great palace is the Pends, a massive groined archway linking the palace with the abbey.

The last king to reside in the palace was Charles II, who, in 1650, signed here the "Dunfermline Declaration". Before his accession to the English crown James VI spent much of his time here. The local saying, "The deil has cast his cloak over him already"-in reference to an unlucky child-is said to have been first spoken by him in this palace on the night when the nurse of Prince Charles came to the king with the tale that an old man had come into the child's room and thrown the shadow of his cloak over the cradle. James replied, "Would he had ta'en the girning brat clean awa'. Gin he e'er be king there'll be na gude a' his reign; the deil has cast his cloak over him already."

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