Tour Scotland Video King Malcolm Canmore Tower

Tour Scotland video of the King Malcolm Canmore tower in Dunfermline, Fife Scotland. The remains of this tower can be found in Pittencrieff Glen. It was originally a two storey building measuring 52 feet by 48 feet and is thought to contained twenty small apartments. The Tower is seen on the Burgh Arms of the town of Dunfermline. It was first mentioned in the year 1070, the same year the Malcolm married Margaret. Perched high on a rock it was an impregnable fortress and was used as the residence of Scottish Kings until destroyed by King Edward in 1304. Malcolm was the son of King Duncan I and went into exile in Northumberland when his father was killed by Macbeth in 1040 in Forres, Morayshire. With the support of the English King, Edward the Confessor, and his uncle Earl Siward of Northumbria, he defeated and killed Macbeth at Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire in 1057. Lulach, Macbeth's stepson, took over the throne but Malcolm killed him also in the following year. Malcolm founded the dynasty of the House of Canmore which lasted 200 years until the House of Stewart. By his first marriage to Ingebjørg he had two sons, Duncan II, who became king after Malcolm, and Donald. Ingebjørg was the daughter of the norwegian earl Finn Arnesson at Austrått in Trøndelag. Her mother's father was a brother of the norwegian kings St. Olav and Harald Hardråde. Following Ingebjørg's death, around 1069, he married Margaret, the sister of Edgar Atheling. Edgar would have become King of England if William the Conqueror from Normandy had not conquered the country. By this marriage there were six sons, three of whom, Edgar, Alexander and David, would become king.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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