St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh

You can’t really miss St. Giles Cathedral, its looming presence in the Old Town of Edinburgh means its visible from all over the city. Saying that, I found I wasn’t really as impressed by St Giles as I have been of other cathedrals I’ve visited. One of Scotland’s most important medieval buildings the current structure was begun in the 14th century and has been a centre of Scottish historical events ever since.

The Cathedral is free to enter with donations welcome (I spent some money in the gift shop). I came away with something of an impression that the cathedral was smaller than I was expecting but there was plenty to see. One of the first things you encounter is a bronze sculpture of a three legged stool. I took the photo at first as it’s quite an unusual thing to see in a church and it turned out to come with an interesting history. In 1637 there was a riot in the cathedral (not an unusual occurrence) by people protesting against an English style prayer book which Charles I wanted to introduce to Scottish churches. Jenny Geddes is named as the woman who threw her stool at the Dean of the Cathedral when he began to read from the new prayer book. Whether or not Jenny Geddes really existed is up for debate but the riots and dissension they sparked were very real and in a convoluted way eventually helped lead to the execution of Charles I.

There is also a lot to see in relation to John Knox, a Scottish minister who was a leader in Scotland’s reformation and founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. He gave many contentious speeches from the pulpit at St Giles and had particular vitriol for Mary Queen of Scots who had the temerity to be both Catholic and a woman. There is both a statue in the cathedral and stained glass windows.

One thing not to miss and which my photos really don’t do justice is the Thistle Chapel. The Chapel is named from the Order of the Thistle that was founded in 1687 by James VII (James II of England) – originally the chapel was to be at Holyrood Abbey but a mob angry at the king destroyed it before anyone had chance to use it. Edward VII ordered the new chapel to be built at St Giles in 1906. It was finished in 1911 and has stalls for the 16 Knights of the Order, a stall for the Sovereign and two further royal stalls. This was by far the busiest area in the cathedral and I had to wait quite a while to be able to get in and didn’t really get to appreciate it as much as I might have. Apparently somewhere in all that decoration includes angels playing bagpipes.

One thing to pay attention to just outside the cathedral is a heart shaped mosaic known as the Heart of Midlothian. It marks the location of the Old Tolbooth which was a building that had a multitude of purposes, the most notorious of which was for public executions; it was demolished in 1817. Spitting on it for good luck is apparently a thing – thankfully I didn’t witness anyone doing that myself!

Not perhaps my favourite Scottish cathedral, nevertheless worth popping into during a walk down the Royal Mile.