St Margaret's Stone

St. Margaret's Stone is a large sandstone block now located incongruously next to the road at the entrance of Pitreavie Business Park, 1½ miles (2.5 km) north of Rosyth and 2 miles (3 km) south southeast of the centre of Dunfermline. Tradition suggests that it was here that Queen Margaret rested in 1069 after her arrival in Scotland on route to Malcolm Canmore's palace at Dunfermline, and that she then used this resting-place on many subsequent occasions.

The stone measures 2.6m (8½ feet) long by 1.4m (4 feet 7 inches) high and 0.45m (1½ feet) thick. In 1856 the stone was moved in order to widen the road and temporarily removed for safe-keeping in 1985 by Dunfermline District Council while construction of the adjacent building for the Bank of Scotland was ongoing. Once a scheduled ancient monument, it was de-scheduled in 1993. It is now built into a stone bench-seat and is engraved with the name "St. Margaret's Stone" with an explanation of its history on the plinth beneath.

The stone has been described as heavily cup-marked, but these markings are more likely to have been the result of weathering.


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