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 Inverkeithing ( ; gd, Inbhir Chèitinn) is a port town and parish, in Fife, Scotland, on the Firth of Forth. A town of ancient origin, Inverkeithing was given royal burgh status during the reign of Malcolm IV in the 12th century. It was an impo ...

Primary School. Lauder Technical College was founded by

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

's uncle,

George Lauder, Sr. George Lauder Sr. (9 May 1815 – 18 November 1901) was a political leader in Scotland who was the father of Scottish industrialist George Lauder and surrogate father to his nephew Andrew Carnegie. He was the also the progenitor of the Lauder G ...

, 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 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 Fife College is a further and higher education college in Fife, Scotland. Campuses The college's main campuses are located in Dunfermline, Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy with smaller campuses in Leven, and Rosyth. The college also operates commun ...

. There is also a Busy Bees nursery on the Carnegie College campus.

Transport

The

A92 road The A92 is a major road that runs through Fife, Dundee, Angus, Aberdeenshire, and Aberdeen City in Scotland. From south to north, it runs from Dunfermline to Blackdog, just north of Aberdeen. History The A92's original route in southern Fife i ...

was extended in 1997, linking the roundabout at Carnegie College to the

M90 motorway The M90 is a motorway in Scotland. It runs from Junction 1A of the M9 motorway, south of the Queensferry Crossing, to Perth. It is the northernmost motorway in the United Kingdom. The northern point goes to the western suburbs of Perth at ...

. 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 Queensfe ...

, to provide alternative routes to

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

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 , symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = QueenMargaret.jpg , caption = A view looking west towards Dunfermline Town station , borough = Dunfermline, Fife , country ...

References

Notes

* {{authority control Villages in Fife Areas of Dunfermline