PASSAGIUM REGINAE The - Royal Dunfermline

CHAPTER IV; LANDOWNERS AT LIMEKILNS:
THE MONKS, SIR WILLIAM MURRAY;
ROBERT PITCAIRN AND OTHERS.
The Monks are the first people alluded to in historical documents as
owners of land at Limekilns; they evidently had territorial rights there in very
early time. King Edgar, were told bequeathed it to the monks of
Dunfermline.* Very few authentic records have come down to us concerning
their connection with the place, though there have been a good many
conjectures about their association with the doings at „The King‟s Cellar.‟
We read of monks being in possession of the lands of Gallald or Gellet as
early as 1089, and Gellet was the ancient name for the westernmost part of
Limekilns; we also know that „this place was in 1362 constituted by David II,
a port for the use of the abbots and monks of Dunfermline, and also for the
burgesses and merchants, for the export and import of all sort of goods, such
as wool, hides, skins, etc.‟ and we know that for about 450 years it remained
in the hands of the Church. The monks trade with foreign countries, more
with France, and they would in early times have a harbour of a sort in all
probability at Limekilns.
The following is a translation by the Rev. John Allan Gray, the Roman
Catholic priest of Dunfermline, of the carta of David II, dated 24th October
1326, one of a very large collection of cartæ entitled Registrum de
Dunfermelyn which were compiled by the Benedictine monks for that abbey:
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‘Charter of King David II, of the Port of Gellald. David, by the Grace of
God, King of Scots, to all good men of his whole land, clerics and laymen,
greetings. Be it known that we for the salvation of our soul and for the bones
of all our ancestors successors, Kings of Scotland, have given granted to God
and the blessed Queen Margaret and to the Abbot and monks of Dunfermline
serving God there and who shall serve for ever for themselves, their men
burgesses and merchants, that they may have a port at the GRANGE OF
GELLALD or at Wester Rossith, with consent of the Lords thereof for all
goods and merchandise of wool, hides and skins and for carrying and
importing and delivering the same to the said port by the merchants thereof
as freely and lawfully as to them shall seem most expedient: To have and to
hold, to exercise and use the said port to the said Religious men and their
* See Appendix, Note IV.
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