The First Carnegie Library

This is the first public library in Scotland paid for by Andrew Carnegie, and it’s still the building you walk into when you use Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries. Historic Environment Scotland records it as the first of those Scottish gifts, built after the town council adopted the Free Libraries Act, which let councils levy a penny rate to run a library service. J. C. Walker designed the original Gothic Revival block in 1881–83; James Shearer extended it, in a stripped Renaissance manner, in 1914–21, and there was a further extension in 1990–93.

The porch is worth a proper look on the way in. It is inscribed “The gift of Andrew Carnegie Esq to his native city,” and it records that his mother laid the memorial stone on 27 July 1881. The doorway carries the motto “Let there be light.” The initials JCW and AC on the exterior appear, HES says, to refer to Walker and Carnegie. The original Abbot Street front has bartizans and a pavilion roof; the later work turns the corner towards St Margaret’s Street.

The library you use today is part of a larger venue, officially described by OnFife as a museum, galleries, gift shop and historic library, which opened to the public as Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries on 18 May 2017. Hours, café, exhibitions and access information are on the official OnFife and Fife Council pages — they’re not repeated here, because they can change, and because this page is about the historic building. There is no on-site parking. The Abbey is across the way, and Abbot House is on Maygate, so it’s easy to take the library in as part of a Heritage Quarter circuit. The building is Category B listed; the later galleries are the new skin on Scotland’s first Carnegie library, not a replacement for it.