St Margaret’s Cave
St Margaret’s Cave (2) is where she went daily to pray in a cave in the deep wooded valley of the Tower Burn just a few hundred metres north of the abbey. In the 1960s this valley was filled in to make a car park with the Burn culverted underneath. Dunfermline Burgh Council preserved the cave, buried under the car park, by constructing an illuminated approach tunnel under it. This tunnel slopes downwards, has 73 steps, with interpretative boards on the way down. It ends in the cave where Margaret used to pray where there is a statue of Margaret kneeling in prayer. This is in the care of Fife Council and normally opens daily as a tourist site in the summer. The entrance building, with a custodian and literature, is in the north east corner of the car park. However, the cave is currently not open to the public.
Image credits – Martin Wilkinson
