Remembering Dunfermline
Article written by: Frank Connelly
An ‘Old Dunfermline Calendar’ has been produced for 2026, and in this ‘Remembering’ article we look at some of the images that feature in it.
The first one is a view of Dunfermline High Street from 1959 showing the Regal cinema and Malocos café alongside. The image brings back memories for Isabel Cockburn: “I remember going to the Regal on my second date with my now husband.
The usherette showed us to the back row. Oh I said, someone surely knows you. She should do my husband replied – it’s my mum!” Josie Jackson also recalls the Regal: “I remember seeing the premiere of ‘Jaws’ in there. I also remember the wee kiosk and the usherette with the choc ices and cartons of orange juice for which there was an onscreen warning not to make ‘infantile slurping noises’ during the film’!”
Our next image is of the Cooperative buildings that once dominated the area around Randolph Street and the High Street. The buildings were demolished and the area is now the grassy slope leading up to Dunfermline bus station that is currently being turned into a City Square.
Linda Mason recalls the area and shops: “I remember that well and also going with Mum upstairs to collect her Co-op Dividend. I also remember the horses that were kept to be used for milk deliveries.” The photograph also brings back memories for Andrea Ramsay: “I remember grocery shopping with Mum, sawdust on the floor, sugar weighed into blue bags and huge cheeses waiting to be cut with wire.”
Duncan Spence has good reason to remember the buildings as well: “We had our wedding reception in the Co-op hall after being married in Gillespie Church around the corner. We had to go round the block in a white Cadillac while everyone else just walked across the road. My grandad, Duncan Campbell, looked after the shire horses as well.”
Our next photograph is of one of the very popular paddling pools that were once situated in Pittencrieff Park. Moira Cleeton recalls some family outings: “The Glen holds some wonderful memories of growing up in Dunfermline. My brothers and I had great times exploring the Glen.”
The final image is a view looking along the High Street from the junction of the New Row and East Port looking towards the spire of the ‘Guildhall and Linen Exchange’ pub in the distance.
The ‘Old Dunfermline Calendar’ is available in the shops in Abbot House and Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries, as well as online at olddunfermline.com/shop.
