Edinburgh, High Street, St Giles Cathedral

Robert Burn 1796/7 -paid for mason work

Modifications in the Cathedral carried out by William Burn.

Programme of restoration and additions.

Photographs taken of restoration and other works.

Modifications carried out in the Cathedral by Sir Robert Lorimer, including a new communion table and the Finlay Memorial.

Construction of, and subsequent additions to, the Thistle Chapel.

Photographs taken during construction and modifications to the Thistle Chapel.

Construction of the Chapel of Youth.

Works carried out on the Moray Aisle.

Organ Case. Full Elevation. St Giles Cathedral (High Kirk of St. Giles). Edinburgh.

Organ Case. Sectional Detail. St Giles Cathedral (High Kirk of St. Giles). Edinburgh.

Construction of War Memorial Chapel.

Elevation of Communion Table for Proposed War Memorial Chapel. St Giles Cathedral (High Kirk of St. Giles). Edinburgh.

Elevation Looking East of Proposed War Memorial Chapel. St Giles Cathedral (High Kirk of St. Giles). Edinburgh.

Drawing Details of Sanctuary Lamp for Proposed War Memorial Chapel.

Addition of the Bilsland Crest and the crest to Stirling of Fairburn to the Thistle Chapel.

Pencil and Ink Sketch of Proposed War Memorial Chapel

St. Giles' Church.

For nearly eight hundred years the central feature of the Old Town has been the historic church of St. Giles, which has been, within the span of its long life, a parish church, a collegiate establishment and, for a brief interval of five years, a cathedral. Planted below the Castle and high above Holyrood, on the upper part of the ridge which forms, as it were, the spine of the city, it overlooked on one side the hollow in which the North Loch was subsequently formed and on the other the valley that was later to become the Cowgate. The nearer slope of this valley, on which the Parliament House, Parliament Square and the Law Courts ultimately rose, was partly occupied by the manse and garden of the vicar of St. Giles'. Another portion was set aside as the parish graveyard, the enlargement of which is recorded in 1477-8 (en.1). In 1844 a number of oak coffins, straight at the sides but with their lids rising into a ridge at the centre, was unearthed some 14 ft. below ground on the S of the Parliament House (en.2). In 1910, again, while the foundations of the Thistle Chapel were being dugout, the E. wall of the churchyard was located, and other burials, this time uncoffined, were found near its inner side at a depth of 4 ft. below the pavement of Parliament Square. Although farther S. there may be forced material to a depth of 10 or 12 ft. above the graves that underlie the Courts, the burials found beneath the Library of the Solicitors to the Supreme Court at the foot of the slope were at a usual depth. The roadway at the E. end of the church is now 4 ft. lower than it was originally. There is no evidence that the fabric of the Church rests upon a vaulted undercroft or crypt.

As it now stands, St. Giles' is a cross-church, distended by mediaeval and modern accretions, with a central tower capped by the open crown that still forms a distinctive feature in the skyline of the city. Save for the tower and its superstructure, however, the outside of the building is wholly modern, and represents a restoration, carried out in 1829, in which an attempt was made to transform the building then standing into a systematic structure on the lines of a fully developed church of first rank. But, like so many of the greater parish churches N. of the Border, this of St. Giles had grown by a series of piecemeal additions which, if irregular, were yet harmonious and of value as reflecting the social conditions of their times. The parts W of the tower have suffered most and their story, consequently, can be read only with the aid of such medieval features as survive inside, where restoration has been less drastic. Outside, the old masonry is encased with a veneer of modern ashlar resting on a modern base and varying in thickness from 8 in. at the foot to 4 or 5 in. at the top, where the original walls had been thrust outwards. The windows have been encased with sub-arches and jambs and are therefore narrower by a foot than formerly. The surviving portions of the original tracery now rest above the vaulting.

The earliest church of which vestiges can be found upon the site was of Romanesque design. Of this the one certain remnant is a scalloped capital built into the compartment known as St. Eloi's Chapel; but, three bays W. of the crossing*, a Norman porch, apparently dating from the second half of the 12th century, survived until the end of the18th century in the N. aisle wall, while part of the masonry at the junction of tower and choir may be Norman ashlars re-used. If the extent and ordinance of this early church are unknown, an examination of the plan of the fabric now standing leads to the conclusion that the primary building had an unaisled nave of the same dimensions as the present one and, probably, an apsidal sanctuary in the position of the existing crossing.

Although there is insufficient evidence to show precisely when and in what manner the original church became cruciform, in all likelihood the first step was an eastward extension of the sanctuary in the 13th century, possibly before 1243, the year in which the building was formerly dedicated by David de Bernham, Bishop of St. Andrews.** The troubled years immediately following the Wars of Independence are unlikely to have witnessed much further alteration, but the growing importance of the burgh in the third quarter of the 14th century may be reflected in the addition of side-aisles to the nave. There is some evidence that the N. aisle was intended to end in a W. tower, a project probably never realised. As first set out, the S. aisle generally corresponded in width to its neighbour. The erection of a crossing-tower and of rudimentary transepts an arrangement which may have been modelled on that of Glasgow Cathedral-was no doubt contemporary with this expansion.

Although the church was burnt by Richard II in 1385, a substantial part of the fabric must have survived as the provost and community were able, only two years later, to enter into a contract with three masons for the construction of five vaulted chapels “on the south syde of the paryce kyrc of Edynburgh, fra the west gavyl [gable] lyand in rayndoun [in a straight line] est on to the grete pyler of the stepyl, voutyt on the maner and the masonry as the voute abovyn Sant Stevinys auter [altar] stand and on the north syde of the parys auter of the Abbay of the Halryrudehous, the qwhylk patronne [pattern] they haf sene. Alsua tha ylk men sal mak in ylk Chapel of the four a wyndow with thre lychtys in fourme masonnelyke, the qwhilk patrone thai haf sene, and the fyfte chapel woutyt with a durre als gude maner as the durre stand and in the west gavyl of the forsaid kyrk ... " From this it is clear that the tower was already in existence by 1387. Down to 1829, when the two westernmost compartments were demolished, five chapels stood on the S. side of the S. nave-aisle, the one in the centre having a doorway which still exists and has finally come to rest as the E. door adjoining the Thistle Chapel.

These chapels have been identified with those specified in the contract, although if the document be taken literally it would appear that the new chapels were to be built in what is now the S. passage-aisle of the nave, which, by extension, is wider than its neighbour on the N. Whatever their situation, the chapels were completed about 1391 at a total cost of £660 sterling. Then followed a similar expansion on the N. side of the nave, in which the Norman porch previously mentioned came to occupy the central bay between two chapels on each side. The two W. chapels are still extant and together form the Albany Aisle, to which a date between 1401 and 1410 can be given on the evidence of its architectural and heraldic details. Meanwhile the E. limb was being reconstructed, also with side-aisles. The Scotichronicon informs us (en.3) that storks built in the superstructure in 1416; some part of the present crossing-tower, if not the whole, must therefore have already risen above the high roofs. Thus by the first quarter of the 15th century what was virtually a new church had begun to take shape. Its nave, five bays long, covered with a low quadripartite vault, and lit by a clearstorey from the S., had passage-aisles, which in turn gave access to chapel-aisles, each containing a doorway in the centre subsidiary to the main portal in the W. gable. Farther E. rose the crossing, abutting upon short transepts and opening into a choir of four bays, which was covered with a low quadripartite vault and was lit directly only from the E. In 1419, when the reconstruction of the fabric was virtually complete, the burgesses sought to have their new church raised to collegiate status (4), but their petition was refused.

[see RCAHMS 1951 pp. 25-36 for a detailed description]

RCAHMS 1951

(1) B.R., i, p. 142. (2) O.E.C., iii (1910), p. 211. (3) Lib. xv, cap. xxiv. (4) Calendar of Papal Registers,

vii, p. 136.

*This is unlikely to have been its original position.

**This prelate's Pontificate gives the day as 6th October, cf. P.S.A.S., xx (1885-6), p. 198. The feast of the dedication of St. Giles' Kirk was, however, celebrated yearly on November 3rd (Registrum Secreti Sigilli, iii, fol. 134). September 1st is the Saint's day. In 1559, when the "auld faith" was restored for a brief interval, St. Giles' was consecrated anew by the Bishop of Amiens.

Production of a crest for the Duke of Hamilton in the Thistle Chapel.

Production of a crest for the Duke of Edinburgh in the Thistle Chapel.

Detail Elevations of Oak Chest. St Giles Cathedral (High Kirk of St. Giles). Edinburgh.

Production of a crest for the Thistle Chapel.

Works carried out by Ian G Lindsay.

A record of St Giles Cathedral taken by William McKelvie.

It has been suggested that the chapel of Edinburgh Castle which was conveyed to Holyrood Abbey (ESC, 1905, 75), served as the church for the early urban nucleus (Duncan, 1975, 466). St. Giles succeeded this Edinburgh Castle chapel as burgh church and its parish was carved from that of St. Cuthbert (Duncan, 1975, 466). David I, however, granted the church of St. Giles with its grange to the Lazarites, a possession which was later confirmed by Pope Innocent III (Cowan, 1967, 177). During the period of war and schism in the fourteenth century the lands of St. Giles and other patronage of the church fell to the Scottish crown which proceeded to disburse them once more. As early as 1419 the burgesses of Edinburgh were pressing the crown to raise St. Giles to collegiate status, but this was not granted until 1466 (Cowan, 1967, 177). By the year 1559, St. Giles boasted forty-four chantry altars and nearly one hundred officiating clergy (Meikle, 1948, 22).

It is possible that the earliest church structure was that of an unaisled nave with the same dimensions as the present one, and probably an apsidal sanctuary in the position of the existing crossing (RCAM, 1951, 26). It is unknown when the church became cruciform although the tower was in existence by 1387 (RCAM, 1951, 26). By the early fifteenth century, at the time when Edinburgh first pursued the idea of collegiate. status, virtually a new church was taking form. It consisted of a choir with four bays and side aisles; a nave of five bays, also with side aisles; and a central crossing with north and south transepts (MacGibbon, 1896, ii, 420). St. Giles survived the Reformation with little external structural damage, and internally it suffered only through the large number of times it was divided and subdivided to take in new congregations. When episcopacy was established in 1633 the body of the church was temporarily made whole again, although Charles II 1s plans to see the building remodelled on cathedral lines went unrealised (RCAM, 1951, 30). In 1871, when it was decided to restore it as much as possible to its pre-Reformation character, all galleries and partition walls were removed, opening the building into a single place of worship (Gray, 1940, 21).

Information from ‘Historic Edinburgh, Canongate and Leith: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1981).

NT 2572 7359. A watching brief was carried out on the excavation of a service trench in the N transept of St Giles Cathedral. The floor level of this part of the transept is approximately 1.5m lower than that of the main part of the church and over 1m higher than the High Street. Sandstone bedrock was encountered at 0.45m depth. At the W end of the trench, there was a step cut into the bedrock, approximately 0.25m deep, in which fragments of two wall footings in very different styles, both running N to S were recognised. Some of the features may relate to the cellar lying adjacent to the W. There was nothing to suggest any antiquity to any of the features.

NT 2572 7360 A watching brief was carried out during the excavation of a service trench around the outside of the church, running from the SW corner along the W and N sides of the building to the steps at the E entrance. No archaeological remains were recorded due to the existence of old service trenches and the proximity of natural deposits close to the surface. Bedrock was encountered in a number of places on the N and W sides, at depths between 0.50m and 0.75m.

A watching brief was carried out during the installation of underfloor heating in the central area of the choir. Sleeper walls between the column foundations of the choir, identical to those found in the S choir aisle excavations were recorded. The footings of the columns were situated on a deposit of boulder clay. Cut into this boulder clay a considerable number of graves were recorded within the body of the choir. These had been truncated in modern times, and in places in situ articulated bones protruded from the fills. All were left undistrubed. Part of an enigmatic octagonal stone-built feature close to the base of the most easterly choir column of the S arcade was recorded. Its function and date are at present unclear. Within the rubble infill below the 19th century floor three placks coins were found, two of James IV and one of James V.

The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (http://www.pmsa.org.uk/) set up a National Recording Project in 1997 with the aim of making a survey of public monuments and sculpture in Britain ranging from medieval monuments to the most contemporary works. Information from the Edinburgh project was added to the RCAHMS database in October 2010 and again in 2012.

The PMSA (Public Monuments and Sculpture Association) Edinburgh Sculpture Project has been supported by Eastern Photocolour, Edinburgh College of Art, the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, Historic Scotland, the Hope Scott Trust, The Old Edinburgh Club, the Pilgrim Trust, the RCAHMS, and the Scottish Archive Network.

NT 2572 7359 A watching brief was undertaken between June and August 2004 in six roof spaces above the southern area of the cathedral (NT27SE 204) as part of ongoing renovation works. This followed on from similar visits conducted on the northern roof spaces in 2003. Finds were confined to items and detritus associated with recent building works, such as scrap lead, wire, etc. Several large moulded stone fragments were noted.

Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.

NT 257 736 We undertook a programme of work in St Giles between March and July 2006. A watching brief was carried out on the excavation of an area in the W wing. Several features of archaeological importance were encountered during the works. A 0.40m wide sandstone wall, 2.6m long and aligned E to W was observed at a depth of 0.50m in the W edge of excavation. Remains of a semicircular wall composed of rough unbonded sandstone blocks were observed at a depth of 0.35m, 2.10m E of the W door. This overlay large, rectangular sandstone foundations in a semicircular formation. A large pit was excavated in the SW corner. It contained fragments of moulded masonry, occasional iron nails and a cache of charnel.

Archaeological features were also observed in two trenches during external excavations on the W side of the Cathedral. A sandstone wall was observed in the N trench, to the E of the Cathedral. It is possible that this was the remains of a building, possibly related to the Tolbooth and perhaps contemporary with the construction of the Luckenbooths. It is also likely that this structure was demolished in 1817 during the widening of the High Street. A wall was also observed within the southern trench.

Archive to be deposited in NMRS.

Sponsor: Peter Moran Ltd.

A data upgrade project to record war memorials.

Salvage excavation was carried out during the installation of a new organ within the S transept of the kirk. A foundation trench measuring 3.8m by 1m was excavated to a depth of 3m partially by building contractors and partially by archaeologists. The upper metre of the trench contained late post-medieval wall footings and ducts. Beneath this a series of near complete and fragmentary inhumations were recorded. All were extended inhumations, aligned EW. Considerable quantities of disarticulated bone were also recovered. It is probable that the burials predate the extension of the S transept in the late 14th century and were originally in the external kirkyard. Beneath the burials a further 1.4m of deposits were excavated, consisting of bulk clays and sands, similar to deposits found in the 1981 excavations within the cathedral.

Proposals for War Memorila Chapel.

Details of Sanctuary Lamp for Proposed War Memorial Chapel. St Giles Cathedral (High Kirk of St. Giles). Edinburgh.

Proposed New Floor Inlay. King George Vl Memorial in Thistle Chapel. St Giles Cathedral (High Kirk of St. Giles), Edinburgh.

Organ Case. Sectional Detail and Plan of Alterations to North Porch. St Giles Cathedral (High Kirk of St. Giles). Edinburgh.

NT 25727 73590 An assessment visit identified the remarkable five-storey timber frame within the bell tower of St Giles as being predominantly built with oak, probably medieval and therefore a key candidate for SESOD. Ten oak samples were taken from Levels 1 to 3 and nine samples were dated, eight of them matching each other to form site chronology STGMx8 spanning AD 1152–1459. Comparison with reference data proves STGMx8 to be native oak, a first for Edinburgh where Scandinavian imports dominate the tree-ring record, and providing the earliest dendro-date so far for any standing building in Edinburgh. A close statistical match with data from the roof of Randolph’s Hall at Darnaway Castle in Moray indicates the St Giles oaks came from NE Scotland and probably from the Forest of Darnaway. Felling dates of winters AD1453/54 and AD1459/60 are identified at Levels 1 and 2 respectively, where three samples had sub-bark surface intact. Timber STG04 from Level 1 matches Scandinavian sources and was felled in 1508. It was clearly a later insert, a vertical post wedged into place into the pre-existing Level 1 structure. Medieval tool marks and assembly marks are well preserved in the structure and small burn marks, identified as apotropaic (protection) marks, occur in several places on the timber frame. This rare survivor of a complex Scottish medieval timber structure would merit more intensive study and there may be further felling dates yet to be identified especially in the upper levels. Full details of the St Giles and other SESOD results will be given in the project publication. See also the SESOD overview (p6).

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: Historic Environment Scotland

Coralie M Mills – Dendrochronicle

(Source: DES Volume 23)