Andrew Carnegie left Dunfermline in Scotland before he was thirteen but throughout his early struggles in the New World and his later success as one of the richest men in the world, he remembered with great affection the “Auld Grey Toun” of his birth.

By 1903 he had already given Dunfermline the very first Carnegie library and innovative public swimming baths but in a hand-written letter from Skibo Castle in August of that year he set up the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust with an endowment of $2.5 Million and the exhortation to his new Trustees to use the funds to “bring into the monotonous lives of the toiling masses of Dunfermline more of sweetness and light.” He also purchased and handed to the Trustees the magnificent Pittencrieff Park and Glen for the people of Dunfermline. In the years that followed there were few aspects of the life of Dunfermline that the Trust did not touch. Reading rooms, bowling greens, clinics, a College of Hygiene and Physical Education, a School of Handicrafts, a Music Institute, Women’s Centre, Youth Centre, playing fields and much more were established. At the heart of this work the unique Park and Glen was constantly enhanced to include conservatories, a museum, an aviary, restaurant and a pavilion for concerts and exhibitions.

In addition the community was assisted by the Trust in many further ways, supporting local schools, educational visits and sports activities. This form of assistance evolved into a pattern of community grant giving which went on to include community organisations, technological innovation, arts, horticulture, and general welfare.

Over the years the financial pressure brought on by the breadth of capital commitment by the Trust and the increasing scope and provision of statutory local services resulted in the Trustees revisiting the advice of their founder to withdraw from commitments which should now properly be supported by these authorities. Even Pittencrieff Park, the costs of which by the 1960s were threatening to overwhelm the Trust, was taken under the management of the local authority in the mid 1970s.

Today the Trust is run by twenty Trustees drawn from the community and shares its working offices with the Carnegie Hero Fund. During 2007 both of these Trusts will move — together with their sister Trusts based in Scotland, the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland — into custom built headquarters on the very edge of Pittencrieff Park. The work of the Trust continues to evolve with an annual income approaching £400,000 now directed into a broad spectrum of community grants and partnership projects, the nature of which is constantly reviewed to ensure the most effective outcome.

In addition to their major programme of community work, the Dunfermline Trust supports and administers the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum which includes the original small weaver’s cottage where he was born in 1835. The adjoining museum was built by his widow Louise and opened in 1928. The museum tells the story of the extraordinary young boy who became one of the world’s greatest philanthropists and showcases both his work and his enduring legacy.