Great Scot: Dunfermline Remembers Native Son - Andrew Carnegie

07-14-2002

DUNFERMLINE, Scotland - Pittsburgh has many connections to Scotland but perhaps none more significant than with the town of Dunfermline.

In 1835, industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was born in the industrial town across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh, Scotland.  Dunfermline itself has an illustrious history. The "auld grey toun" grew up around a 10th-century castle and subsequent Benedictine abbey built on the volcanic cone that dominates the countryside. In fact, Dunfermline was capital of Scotland until 1603, when the court was moved to Edinburgh Castle.

The son of a weaver of damask linen, Carnegie was born and raised in a tiny cottage on St. Margaret Street, on the edge of the estate of the Laird of Pittencrieff, whose grounds encompassed the castle ruins and the tiny glen it commanded.  Carnegie's parents shared the typical "two up, two down" cottage with another family. The Carnegies did all their living in a single, small room upstairs, while the huge Jacquard loom that was the family' s livelihood occupied the room on the first floor. 

In 1848 the Carnegie family immigrated to America, where Andrew, over the next five decades, used his competitive instincts and organizational genius to build a vast fortune, starting with the Pennsylvania Railroad in Altoona and then bringing the manufacture of steel and Pittsburgh into the modern age. But he never lost his love for his native Scotland or the town in which he was born.  When he sold his steel assets to J.P. Morgan in 1901 for nearly a half-billion dollars, Carnegie embarked on two decades of dedicated philanthropy, the likes or effects of which the world has seldom seen. By the time of his death in 1919, he had given away more than $350 million to construct nearly 3,000 free libraries around the world, fund universities (including Carnegie Mellon University), build symphony halls and form various foundations through which philanthropic efforts continue. 

Nowhere is that more evident than in Dunfermline, whose citizens were the earliest beneficiaries of Carnegie's largesse. He once declared, "What Benares is to the Hindu, Mecca to the Mohammedan, Jerusalem to the Christians, all that Dunfermline is to me."  The town was the site of Carnegie's first public gift, a swimming pool in 1873, followed in 1881 by his first public library, the first Carnegie Hall and the formation of a trust which still provides the town with athletic, artistic and community facilities. 

In 1903, he wrote a letter of instruction to directors of the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust to whom he was transferring ownership of the 76-acre Pittencrieff Estate along with an endowment of $2.5 million. He specified that all should be "used in attempts to bring into the monotonous lives of the toiling masses of Dunfermline more sweetness and light; to give them - especially the young - some charm, some happiness, some elevating conditions of life which residence elsewhere would have denied; that the child of my native town, looking back in after years, however far from home it may have roamed, will feel that simply by virtue of being such, life has been made happier and better." 

The beautiful Pittencrieff estate to which Carnegie, as a child, had been denied entrance on the one day of the year it was open to the public, because of his mother was a Morrison. Now it was a park for all. 

And a magnificent park it still is, a medieval fairyland of steep, rhododendron-draped flanks and high, graceful bridges leading to the ruined foundation of the castle tower of Malcolm Canmore, the 11th-century Scottish laird who offered refuge to the heir to the English throne who was fleeing Norman conquerors. It's a cool and airy glen, with peacocks strutting their stuff in the ruins and glasshouses filled with exotic blooms. 

It was Carnegie's wife, Louise, who championed the purchase and preservation of the tiny cottage in Dunfermline that had been the family home. The rooms have been restored to the way they looked and were furnished when the family lived there.  In 1928, nine years after Carnegie died, the larger and more marbleized Memorial Hall museum was grafted on to the side of the cottage.

Its large rooms hold an extraordinary collection of Carnegie memorabilia, one which will be particularly meaningful to Pittsburghers. 

Well-laid-out exhibits detail Carnegie's life and rise to fortune and fame, with several devoted to the history of Western Pennsylvania. In fact, it may be the most comprehensive explanation of this area's early history and industrial evolution to be found anywhere in Europe. There is, for example, a display dedicated to British Gen. John Forbes, of Fort Pitt fame, who also was born in Dunfermline.  Certainly beholding the glittering assemblage of keys to cities from around the world given to Carnegie by grateful citizens provides insight into the comprehensive and inclusive nature of his charity.  "A man who dies thus rich dies disgraced," Carnegie once wrote. He may not have succeeded completely at his goal of giving away all his money, but it's exceedingly clear that his legacy has earned him near-saintly status in Dunfermline.  *  There's one other Scottish location that was near and dear to Carnegie's heart. 

n 1898, he bought Skibo Estate, 20,000 Highland acres on the shores of Dornach Firth just north of Inverness, where he built himself a regal residence. 

Skibo Castle was fit for entertaining royalty, though his guest list was somewhat more egalitarian. Visitors who occupied the 15 ample bedrooms ranged from King Edward VII and Lloyd George to Booker T. Washington, Rudyard Kipling, the Rockefellers and Helen Keller.  The castle, with its silk-lined walls and velvet sofas, was the epitome of late-19th-century coziness. Guests fished for salmon and trout in Carnegie's lakes, swam in his pool and played golf on the course he had carved down by the sea. And each morning at 8:00, a kilted piper woke everyone by playing bagpipes under the bedroom windows. 

After Carnegie's death, his daughter Margaret lived at Skibo for many years, but it eventually fell into disuse. Several years ago, a businessman purchased what remained of the estate and turned it into a very upscale retreat and spa, where guests pay up to $750 a day to be pampered by the highest standards in Scottish hospitality.  Though the estate has been greatly reduced, there are still some 7,500 acres in which to frolic, and much remains exactly as it was when Carnegie held court, including almost all of the castle's original furniture. There are private salmon streams, sailing facilities and tennis, as well as Carnegie's original 18-hole golf course.  Skibo Castle remains a regal setting for a real highland fling.  

If you go...  The Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Memorial, Moodie Street, Dunfermline, Scotland, is sopen daily year-round, although hours vary. There's small admission charge. For information, phone 011-44-1383-724304 or visit the Web site, www.carnegiemuseum.co.uk  The Carnegie Club, Skibo Castle, Dornoch, Scotland IV53RQ; phone 011-44-1862-894600; www.carnegieclub.co.uk

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