The name is of Scottish Gaelic origin, Inbhir Ceitein. Inbhir means 'confluence, inflow' thus 'mouth of the Keithing/Ceitein. The Keithing is the name of a small river or burn that runs through the southern part of the town. Taylor (2006) notes that the name Keithing probably contains the Pictish (Brythonic) *coet, 'wood', so the Keithing burn would have meant 'burn that runs through or past or issues from woodland'.
Inverkeithing is a town and a royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, located on the Firth of Forth. According to population estimates (2006), the town has a population of 5,265.
The port town was given burgh status by King David I of Scotland (1124–53) in the 12th century and is situated about 9 miles (15 km) north from Edinburgh Airport and about 4 miles from the centre of Dunfermline. Modern Inverkeithing is almost continuous with Rosyth and Dalgety Bay. Inverkeithing is a developing town and has many new housing sites including one next to the town's railway station.
The heart of the medieval town is around the High Street and Church Street. On the High Street is the category A listed building, the Hospitium of the Grey Friars, the best surviving example of a friary building left in Scotland. The remains date either from after the Reformation or the restoration between 1932 and 1934. The building is now used as a social community centre. The town also contains one of the finest examples remaining of a mercat cross in Scotland. The cross is said to have been built as a memorial for the marriage of the Duke of Rothesay with the daughter of the Earl of Douglas. Originally, the cross stood on the north end of the High Street, before moving to face the tolbooth and then to its present site at the junction between Bank Street and High Street, further up the road. The core of the mercat cross is said to date from the late 14th century with the octangonal shaft from the 16th century. Two of the shields on the cross bear the arms of Queen Annabella Drummond and the Douglas Family. Later, a unicorn and a shield depicting the St Andrew's Cross were added in 1688, the work of John Boyd of South Queensferry. Located on Bank Street, between numbers 2-4, is the impressive Thomsoun's House which dates from 1617 and was reconstructed in 1965.
The B-listed Inverkeithing (St Peter's) Church on Church Street was first built as a wooden Celtic church before being adapted into a Norman stone structure, which was bequeathed by the monks of Dunfermline Abbey in 1139. The church suffered a fire in 1825 and was re-built in its present form in 1826. Later, the church was restored in 1900.
Only the tower dating from the 14th century remains from the pre-reformation church building.
Opposite St Peter's is the A-listed L-plan tower house known as Fordell Lodgings which dates from 1671 and was built by Sir John Henderson of Fordell. Behind Fordell Lodgings is the C listed building of the former Inverkeithing Primary School, built in 1894. On King Street is the much altered 16th century B-listed Rosebury House, once owned by the Rosebury family. The house was formerly called 'toofall' by the Earl of Dunbar, before being purchased by the Earl of Rosebury. On Townhall Street is the A-listed Inverkeithing Tolbooth, which displays the old town coat of arms, above the front door. The renaissance tower, located at the western end of the building, is the oldest part of the tolbooth dating from 1755. A three-storey classical building followed in 1770 as a replacement for the previous tolbooth. This consists of a prison or the 'black hole' on the ground floor; the court room on the middle and the debtors' prison on the top.
