Carnegie’s Home Town Gets a Lift – When Great Scots Abounded
Carnegie’s Home Town Gets a Lift –
Great Scots Abounded
The time when Scots migrants helped shape the New World is becoming a bit of a distant memory, well it is if you don’t count Donald Trump’s Scottish mother in this, a time when Scots like Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, Alan Pinkerton invented the detective agency and Andrew Carnegie was a colossus in business. Did you know Pinkerton once saved Abe Lincoln’s life and he was a determined abolitionist who spied on the Confederacy, all a world away from his birth in the Gorbals. I was reminded about all of this when I read that the world’s first Carnegie library in Dunfermline had been given a £12m revamp and facelift. The library is award winning even before it is reopened, that’s grand I say. And it has become Scotland’s newest architectural landmark. Dunfermline of course is the place of Carnegie’s birth in 1835. The library is expected to attract more than a quarter of a million visitors a year what with new exhibition spaces, research facilities, a children’s library, a cafe-bar and garden I am tired just listing them, but it does look fandabidozi, to quote that sage of culture Wee Jimmy Krankie.
First Ever Has Renewed
The grade-B listed library building in Dunfermline’s heritage quarter, has been left largely unaltered and much has been added elsewhere creating the first proper museum facility for the towns exhibits. It includes a grand view over the town from the roof, so you’ll be able to see the last resting place of Robert the Bruce from an unexpected angle.
Remember the Familiar too
Well as you must have guessed buy now that I am always looking for an unexpected angle too, one where I can showcase the delights of James Pirie. But sometimes I forget the expected delights too as I get carried away with the new designs or a special offer. The delights like our glorious Royal Scot Crystal ranges which are all based on classic 18th and 19th century designs and offer a taste and test of genuine craftsmanship. It is good stuff and is both tried and tested by the generations.
