St Giles' Cathedral

Stand still for a moment on the cobbles of the Royal Mile. Feel how the stone setts slope gently downhill beneath your feet, towards Holyrood in the east. Above you, a dark grey tower rises from the street, and at its top sits something unusual. It looks like an open stone crown, with slender arches meeting at a single point against the sky. That crown has watched over this street for more than five hundred years.

This is St Giles', the High Kirk of Edinburgh. Here is the first surprise. Despite the name on the maps, this building is not really a cathedral at all. It was the seat of a bishop only for two short periods in the seventeenth century. For most of its life it has been a parish church. Today it belongs to the Church of Scotland, which has no bishops. Even so, the old title has stayed in common use.

A church has stood on this ridge since at least the twelfth century. Almost nothing from that early building survives. Most of what you see dates from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The earlier church suffered badly in 1385, when an English army burned much of Edinburgh. The townspeople rebuilt it, and over the next century they kept adding to it. They built chapels, aisles and altars, one after another. The church grew outwards in pieces, more like a small town than a single plan.

The church takes its name from Saint Giles, a hermit who lived in what is now southern France. In medieval Europe he was the patron saint of people with disabilities and of lepers. Why a French hermit for a Scottish town? Nobody knows for certain. One theory points to the close ties between Scotland and France in the Middle Ages. In the fifteenth century, a local man named William Preston brought home a relic, said to be an arm bone of the saint. An aisle inside still carries his name.

Now look again at the crown on the tower. It was added towards the end of the fifteenth century. For centuries it was one of the highest points of the city skyline. Crowned spires like this are rare, and Scots often see this one as a symbol of the city. Notice how light it looks compared with the heavy tower below. The builders used flying ribs of stone to hold it up, with open air between them.

As you walk around the outside, you may notice that the walls look smooth and regular, almost too neat for a medieval church. That is because they are not medieval on the surface. In the late 1820s and early 1830s, the architect William Burn covered much of the exterior with a new skin of cut stone. Many people at the time complained, and some historians still regret it. The old rough walls are mostly hidden behind this later facing.

The sixteenth century brought the greatest change in the church's story. During the Scottish Reformation, around 1560, Scotland broke away from the Catholic Church. The reformer John Knox became minister here. He preached against images and ornament, and the church's many altars and statues were removed. The interior became plain, with the focus on the spoken word. Inside today you can find a statue of Knox himself, holding a book. It is a slightly ironic tribute, given his feelings about statues.

This building also has its own famous story. In 1637, King Charles the First tried to bring in a new prayer book for Scottish churches. According to a popular tradition, a market woman called Jenny Geddes was so angry during the first reading that she threw her stool at the minister's head. Historians cannot prove she existed. But the riot that day was real. It helped to spark a national protest, and soon a wider conflict across Scotland, England and Ireland.

When you go inside, let your eyes adjust to the light. The space is broad and full of tall stone pillars. Much of the interior you see comes from a major restoration in the 1870s and early 1880s. A publisher and Lord Provost, William Chambers, paid for much of this work. Walls that had once divided the church into separate meeting rooms came down. Colourful stained glass came back into the windows. The church became one large space again.

In one corner, look for the Thistle Chapel. It was built between 1909 and 1911 for the Order of the Thistle, Scotland's highest order of chivalry. The architect was Robert Lorimer. Every surface is carved — dark oak stalls, painted crests, a stone roof full of detail. Look up closely and you may find a tiny angel playing the bagpipes. It is a small joke in the wood and stone, and many visitors walk right past it.

There are quieter details too. Find the bronze memorial to the writer Robert Louis Stevenson, who was born in Edinburgh. The sculptor first showed him with a cigarette in his hand. For the church setting, the cigarette became a pen. Look also for the window in memory of the poet Robert Burns, added in the 1980s, with deep blues and greens. Above the west end stands a large modern organ, built by the Austrian firm Rieger in the early 1990s.

The church still plays a part in national life. In September 2022, the coffin of Queen Elizabeth the Second rested here. Thousands of people queued through the night along the Royal Mile to pay their respects. Outside, the square behind the church is Parliament Square. It holds an old statue of King Charles the Second on horseback. Next to it stands Parliament House, where the Scottish parliament met before 1707 and where the highest courts sit today.

Before you leave, look down at the pavement near the west door. You will see a heart shape set into the stones. This is the Heart of Midlothian. It marks the site of the Old Tolbooth, a building that served as a prison and place of execution. Many locals still spit on the heart as they pass. Some say it brings good luck. Others say it shows contempt for the old jail. Either way, try not to stand on the wrong spot.

As you step back onto the Royal Mile, listen. You may hear a piper further down the street, tourists in many languages, or the bells above you. Look up once more at the stone crown. For centuries, people in this city have walked past it on their way to market, to court, or to church. Now you are one of them, part of the long line of people on this ridge.