The Abbey and the ruins around it are all that remain of a Benedictine Abbey founded by Queen Margaret in the eleventh century. The foundations of her church are under the present nave (or `Old Church`), built in the twelfth century in the Romanesque style by David (son of Margaret and Malcolm Canmore).
King Robert the Bruce is buried here, and the tower of the church bears the words `King Robert the Bruce` in carved stone around the top and inside, beneath the pulpit, is the Bruce`s tomb, with its fine brass cover dating from 1889.
Outside the east gable of the church is the shrine of Queen Margaret, a place of pilgrimage since the medieval times, and nearby are the remains of the other monastic buildings, including the large refectory and the ruin of the Royal Palace, rebuilt from the guest house of the monastry in the sixteenth century for James VI and his Queen.
After the reformation Dunfermline ceased to be an Abbey, but since the nave of the church continued to be used as the local parish church, much of the Abbey has survived to this day. The present parish church, to the east of the Old Church, was added in the nineteenth century.