Editing Dunfermline (section)

===Early history===
There have been various interpretations of the name, ''"Dunfermline"''.<ref name="Dennison and Stronach3–4">Dennison and Stronach, ''Historic Dunfermline'', pp.3–4.</ref> The first element, ''"dun"'' translated from [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]], has been accepted as a (fortified) hill, and is assumed to be referring to the rocky outcrop at the site of [[Malcolm's Tower|Malcolm Canmore's Tower]] in Pittencrieff Glen (now [[Pittencrieff Park]]).<ref name="Taylor and Márkus309–310">Taylor and Márkus, ''The Place–Names of Fife: Volume One'', pp.309–310.</ref> The rest of the name is problematic.<ref name="Taylor and Márkus309–310" /> The second element, the ''"ferm"'' may have been an alternative name for the Tower [[Burn (landform)|Burn]] according to a medieval record published in 1455 which, together with the Lyne Burn to the south, suggests the site of a fortification between these two watercourses.<ref name="Dennison and Stronach3–4" /><ref name="Taylor and Márkus309–310" />

The first record of a settlement in the Dunfermline area was in the [[Neolithic]] period. This evidence includes finds of a stone axe, some flint arrowheads and a carved stone ball near the town.<ref name="Dennison and Stronach9">Dennison and Stronach, ''Historic Dunfermline'', p.9.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Cowie|first=Trevor|date=1993|title=A survey of Neolithic pottery of eastern and central Scotland|url=http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-352-1/dissemination/pdf/vol_123/123_013_041.pdf|journal=Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland|page=25}}</ref> A [[cropmark]] which is understood to have been used as a possible mortuary enclosure has been found at Deanpark House, also near the town. By the time of the [[Bronze Age]], the area was beginning to show some importance. Important finds included a bronze axe in Wellwood and a gold [[torc]] from the Parish Churchyard.<ref name="Dennison and Stronach9" /> Cist burials from the [[Bronze Age]] have also been discovered at both [[Crossford, Fife|Crossford]] and Masterton, the latter of which contains a pair of armlets, a bronze dagger and a set necklace believed to have complemented a double burial.<ref name="Dennison and Stronach9" /><ref>{{cite journal |last=Close-Brooks |first=Joanna |date=1971–1972 |title=A Bronze Age cemetery at Aberdour Road, Dunfermline, Fife |url=https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-352-1/dissemination/pdf/vol_104/104_121_136.pdf |journal=Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland |volume=104 |access-date=13 August 2016}}</ref>

The first historic record for Dunfermline was made in the 11th century.<ref name="Dennison and Stronach15–16">Dennison and Stronach, ''Historic Dunfermline'', pp.15–16.</ref> According to the fourteenth-century chronicler, [[John of Fordun]], [[Malcolm III of Scotland|Malcolm III]] married his second bride, the Anglo-Hungarian princess [[Saint Margaret of Scotland|Saint Margaret]], at the church in Dunfermline between 1068 and 1070;<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/johnoffordunschr00fordrich|title=John of Fordun's Chronicle of the Scottish nation : Fordun, John of, d. 1384? : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive|website=Internet Archive|year=1872 }}</ref> the ceremony was performed by [[Fothad II|Fothad]], the last [[Celts|Celtic]] [[Archbishop of St Andrews|bishop of St Andrews]].<ref name="Dennison and Stronach15–16" /><ref name="Dunlop44">Dunlop, ''Queen Margaret of Scotland'', p.44.</ref> Malcolm III established Dunfermline as a new seat for royal power in the mid-11th&nbsp;century and initiated changes that eventually made the township the de facto capital of Scotland for much of the period until the assassination of [[James I of Scotland|James I]] in 1437.<ref name="Lamont–Brown178–180">Lamont-Brown, ''Fife in History and Legend'', pp.178–180.</ref> Following her marriage to King Malcolm III, Queen Margaret encouraged her husband to convert the small [[culdee]] chapel into a church for [[Order of St Benedict|Benedictine]] monks.<ref name="Lamont–Brown178–180" /> The existing culdee church was no longer able to meet the demand for its growing congregation because of a large increase in the population of Dunfermline from the arrival of English nobility coming into Scotland.<ref name="Henderson17">Henderson, ''The Annals of Dunfermline and Vicinity from the earliest authentic period to the present time 1069–1878'', p.17.</ref> The founding of this new church of Dunfermline was inaugurated around 1072, but was not recorded in the town's records.<ref name="Henderson17" />