Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1
St Giles is often referred to as a cathedral, although it has only been the seat of a bishop
on two brief and unhappy occasions in the seventeenth century. According to one of the
city's best-known legends, the attempt in 1637 to introduce the English Prayer Book,
and thus episcopal government, so incensed a humble stallholder named Jenny Geddes
that she hurled her stool at the preacher, prompting the rest of the congregation to chase
the offending clergy out of the building. A tablet in the north aisle marks the spot from
where she let rip.
The spire and interior
he resplendent
crown spire
of the kirk is formed from eight flying buttresses and dates
back to 1485, while
inside
, the four massive piers supporting the tower were part of a
Norman church built here around 1120. In the nineteenth century, St Giles was adorned
with a whole series of funerary monuments on the model of London's Westminster
Abbey; around the same time it acquired several attractive Pre-Raphaelite stained-glass
windows designed by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. A more recent addition
was the great
west window
, whose dedication to Rabbie Burns in 1985 caused enormous
controversy - as a hardened drinker and womanizer, the national bard was far from being
an upholder of accepted Presbyterian values. Look out, too, for an elegant bronze relief of
Robert Louis Stevenson on the south side of the church.
Thistle Chapel
At the southeastern corner of St Giles, the
Thistle Chapel
was built by Sir Robert Lorimer
in 1911 as the private chapel of the sixteen knights of the Most Noble Order of the
histle, the highest chivalric order in Scotland. Based on St George's Chapel in Windsor,
it's an exquisite piece of craftsmanship, with an elaborate ribbed vault, huge drooping
bosses and extravagantly ornate stalls showing off Lorimer's bold Arts and Crafts styling.
Mary King's Close
2 Warriston's Close, High St • April-Oct daily 10am-9pm; Nov-March Mon-Thurs & Sun 10am-5pm, Fri & Sat 10am-9pm • Tours (every
20min; 1hr) £12.95 •
T
0845 070 6244,
W
realmarykingsclose.com
When work on the Royal Exchange, known as the City Chambers, began in 1753, the
existing tenements on the steeply sloping site were only partially demolished to make
way for the new building being constructed on top of them. he process left large
sections of the houses, together with the old closes that ran alongside them, intact but
entirely enclosed within the basement and cellars of the City Chambers. You can visit
this rather spooky subterranean “lost city” on
tours
led by costumed actors, who take
you round the cold stone shells of the houses where various scenes from the Close's
history have been recreated. As you'd expect, blood, plague, pestilence and ghostly
apparitions are to the fore, though there is an acknowledgement of the more prosaic
side of medieval life in the archeological evidence of an urban cow byre. he tour ends
with a stroll up the remarkably well-preserved
Mary King's Close
itself.
Museum of Childhood
42 High St • Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm • Free •
T
0131 529 4142
W
edinburghmuseums.org.uk
Harking back to simpler times, this museum hosts a joyful collection of toys, clothes,
dolls and bikes that kids used to cherish before the advent of plastic. Over the five
small exhibition spaces there's a surprisingly large amount to see here, including a
beautiful model railway scene and some fancy old Victorian dollhouses.
The Scottish Storytelling Centre and John Knox House
43-45 High St • Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, also Sun noon-6pm in July & Aug • John Knox House £5; Storytelling Centre free •
T
0131 556
9579,
W
scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk
here are two distinct parts to the
Scottish Storytelling Centre
. One half is a stylish
FROM TOP
ARTHUR'S SEAT
P.72
; THE GRASSMARKET
P.72
>
