King Malcolm III

Malcolm Canmore's Tower. There is no historical mention of the Tower of Dunfermline until about A.D. 1070, when Malcolm Canmore and his Queen - Princess Margaret - celebrated their wedding. Dunfermline takes its name from three Celtic words - dun (a hill or fort) fearam (bent or crooked) lin, lyne or Line (a pool or running water). The tower was adopted at an early date for the burgh arms of Dunfermline, and old wax seals show it to have been a building of two storeys with attic about 52 feet from east to west, and 48 feet from north to south. It contained about twenty small apartments. Before the roadway to the south, which was the western access to the town, was formed, the tower, perched on its peninsular rock, was an almost impregnable fortress. This fact no doubt led to Dunfermline's motto "Esto Rupes Inaccessa". Historians are of opinion that the tower was where "The king sits in Dunfermling toon drynking the bluid-red wyne".

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