St Giles Cathedral

 Disappointing, lots of modern additions, but still plenty of Buchans were wed there.

One whole side was given over to war dead. But also nurse Elsie Inglis, after whom the maternity hospital was named where so many Edinburgians were born, including many Buchans. She died in 1917 in Belgium. She will get her own post as I was meaning to research her, and then found her on the walls.

There were two mausoleums. One to a Duke of Argyll and one to Duke of Montrose. Both on the side of the winning government forces, or else why would they be St Giles Cathedral.

St Giles is the patron saint of lepers. Lauren thought that was significant to Edinburgh, but not sure why.

There was an orchestra practicing for a night concert - playing it was said by others Spring, Summer etc. I thought they were pretty good, about 8 young people.

Perhaps an awesome sight was the blue ceiling.

Lots of lovely Victorian stained glass. I got most of the heraldic and Scottish saint ones. This is my favourite, I think because of the blue and it is quite a dramatic scene of floods etc.

All

There was a bronze to that destroyer John Knox, and a facsimile of the Covenant document. Undoubtedly the original is in an archive somewhere. I feel disinclined to reproduce it here in this blog in the 21sr century.

An interesting note about John. He was buried outside the walls of St Giles, after the churchyard had been officially closed due to lack of space. He had been the minister of St Giles, and indeed the whole of Scotland, so he gets what he wants. He is currently residing under car park 23, which when we toured the site had a black car on it. 

Memories of finding the skeleton of Good King Richard III under a car park in Leicester, directing under R as in pa R KING (ie Richard King) in the modern day painted word ‘parking’, made me wonder if the number 23 had any special significance in John Knox’s life. Or perhaps more in his death or reputation, as in the very clear marking of the spot when Phillipa Langley went looking for King Richard’s burial place.