Halbeath is a village northeast of

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; sco, Dunfaurlin, gd, Dùn Phàrlain) is a city, parish and former Royal Burgh, in Fife, Scotland, on high ground from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. The city currently has an estimated population of 58,508. Accord ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

, Scotland. It derives its name from the

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

''choil beath'', which means "wood of birches", and began as a colliery village. In the summer of 1789, a coal pit was sunk at Halbeath, two and a half miles northeast of Dunfermline, and by 1821, 841 people were reported to be living in the village.

Education

A school was built in Halbeath in 1875 under the School Board of the Parish of Dunfermline but was closed in 1966. A new primary school, Carnegie Primary, opened in Halbeath in August 2011. It was previously a virtual school which shared its campus with Inverkeithing Primary School. Lauder Technical College was founded by Andrew Carnegie's uncle, George Lauder, Sr., father of George Lauder, Andrew's cousin and business partner, in 1899. The original campus was situated in the centre of Dunfermline before moving to Halbeath in 1970. The name was changed to

Carnegie College Carnegie College (formerly Lauder College) is a further education college based in Halbeath, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. It was established in 1899, with financial support from George Lauder (Scottish industrialist), George Lauder and Andrew Car ...

in 2007. Carnegie College came together with

Adam Smith College Adam Smith College was a Scotland, Scottish List of further and higher education colleges in Scotland, further and higher education college located over various campuses across the county of Fife. On 1 August 2013 Adam Smith College and Carnegie ...

in August 2013 to form Fife College. There is also a Busy Bees nursery on the Carnegie College campus.

Transport

The A92 road was extended in 1997, linking the roundabout at Carnegie College to the M90 motorway. This removed 22,000 vehicles a day from Main Street and Sandybank, the two busiest streets in Halbeath and greatly reduced congestion in the village. Construction of the Halbeath Park & Ride started in late 2012 and opened on 25 November 2013. The construction was funded by the Scottish Government and European Regional Development Fund. The aims were to reduce congestion problems during the construction of the

Queensferry Crossing The Queensferry Crossing (formerly the Forth Replacement Crossing) is a road bridge in Scotland. It was built alongside the existing Forth Road Bridge and carries the M90 motorway across the Firth of Forth between Edinburgh, at South Queensfer ...

, to provide alternative routes to Edinburgh and Glasgow and to reduce traffic in Dunfermline town centre. There have been calls to build a new railway station at the Park & Ride with the same aims as the Park & Ride. Currently, the nearest station is Dunfermline Queen Margaret railway station.

References

Notes

* {{authority control Villages in Fife Areas of Dunfermline