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The Tron Kirk (Former)
Date 1 May 2003
Event ID 903369
Category Management
Type Site Management
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/903369
Highly distinctive Dutch-influenced Classical-Gothic survival style square-plan church with octagonal steeple surmounting landmark clock tower. Pale ashlar with ornate moulded dressings and obelisk finials. Re-worked extensively over a 200 year period, this Gothic/Classical hybrid ecclesiastical building remains a nationally significant example of its type.
The kirk was founded by King Charles I to house the congregation displaced from nearby St Giles when he made that church a cathedral. Constructed between 1636 and 1647 to a T-plan design by John Mylne, Royal master mason and one of the last masters of the Scots-Mannerist style. The design mixed Palladian and Gothic elements, with a number of details with a contemporary Dutch influence. Master Wright, John Scott, who designed the internal hammerbeam roof was also responsible for the cinquefoil example at Parliament Hall (see separate listing).
The full Chamberlain's Accounts for this project are still extant. The building was truncated in 1785 to rectangular-plan form, involving the removal of one windowed bay from E and W, and the S aisle reduced to a slight pediment projection with detail carefully matched to the original. This work took place to accommodate the construction of Hunter Square and the South Bridge. The kirk´s wooden spire, added by Thomas Sandilands on 1671, burned down in 1824 and was replaced in stone in 1828.
In 1952 the building closed as a church and was acquired by Edinburgh Council, the congregation moving to a new church in Mordun. It was unoccupied for many years, during which time Robert Rowan Anderson's gallery and pulpit interior of 1888 was removed. The steeple was restored by Andrew Renton, 1974-6.
Internal excavations took place in 1974, revealing foundations of 16th century buildings in Marlins Wynd. The Kirk gets its name from the salt-tron, a public weighing beam once located outside the church. (Historic Environment Scotland)
