St. Giles’ Cathedral

Beautiful peaceful and tranquil building and perfect for reflection and contemplating. .
Free of charge with the choice of donation

Wow — this place is stunning. So many intricate and beautiful architectural elements and features. So glad I stopped in.
Make sure to check out the Thistle Chapel, properly jaw dropping stuff. I really enjoyed having a leisurely wander around this amazing place. The staff are full of interesting information, and are more than happy to help.
Do pay the £2 for a photography permit, entrance is free after all, but the continuing restoration and preservation of this wonderful sight does require funds. And £2 is a bargain for all the beauty you’ll see here!

An absolute must see for any local or visitor to our city. Located on the historic Royal Mile in the Old Town, it’s about as central as you can get and short walking distance from many hotels and restaurants. Not only is it spectacular on the outside it’s beautiful on the inside. Pay £2 and you can take photos too. Don’t miss the Thistle Chapel, a fantastically ornate area hidden at the back of the cathedral. If you get the chance join one of their short and highly informative tours.
Don /​

St. Giles’ is a very nice cathedral on the Royal Mile, which has played a central role in the city of Edinburgh for centuries. I attended for the University of Edinburgh’s annual carol service in the cathedral. Although it was quite cold inside, the event was excellent, with full use being made of the powerful organ.
The architecture is beautiful. The vaulted ceilings are great to admire, and the windows are gorgeous too. It’s not a massive place, so visiting as a tourist shouldn’t take too much time out of your day, but it’s worth popping in to take a look around.
The location is perfect for fitting in a trip with the rest of your adventures on the Royal Mile, the major tourist thoroughfare of Scotland’s capital city.

Visited April 2015: «Scotland’s St Giles Church»
When we got to the church, we discovered that you had to pay a 2 pound fee to take photographs. The Thistle room was also closed due to thievery. It is just a 10 minute walk down Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle. There are some incredible stain glass windows, mosaic floors, and there’s a café in the reflectory.

If you’re visiting Edinburgh, you’re probably walking the Royal Mile.
If you’re walking the Royal Mile, you’ll definitely come across this cathedral.
If you’re looking you’re looking for something FREE to do, drop into St. Gile’s.
If you’ve never seen a European church in your life, this will be awesome.
If you’ve already seen some European cathedrals, its average but still awesome.
If you’re feeling cheated for spending £20£ at Westminster Abbey, you’ll love £0 fee.
Its free… so why not? :)

definitely worth a visit. a beautiful cathedral in the heart of Old Town, very close to Edinburgh Castle. inside is gorgeous stained glass and old stone carvings. we didn’t do a tour, but it was worth it to spend even 30 minutes inside examining the architecture. don’t miss it!

This cathedral is stunning, both inside and out.
It’s free to get in, but if you want to take pictures, it’ll cost you £2. We’re tourists on vacation, so of course we paid the £2 to take as many pictures as possible!
This isn’t as big Westminster Abbey, and maybe it isn’t as old, either, but it’s definitely impressive in its own right. The stained glass windows are beautiful, and the different architectural pieces — columns, statues, etc. — are all wonderful to gaze at.
I don’t know if they do tours — there was one gentleman giving very good information to a couple not far from us at one point, but I couldn’t tell if he worked there, or if he was just a family friend. Tours would be awesome — either of the guided or audio variety, but I can see how that might be more work than it’s worth.
There are a few different nooks and crannies to explore inside, plus a little café, if you’re feeling peckish. There are also people who definitely do work there milling around should you have questions (and to check that you have the photo pass).
We were there maybe an hour — it couldn’t have been much longer than that — but it was a nice way to pass the time.

Splendid neo-​Gothic cathedral on the Royal Mile, the most stunning church in Edinburgh.
Wikipedia says: «St Giles’ Cathedral, more properly termed the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is the principal place of worship of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh. Its distinctive crown steeple is a prominent feature of the city skyline, at about a third of the way down the Royal Mile which runs from the Castle to Holyrood Palace. The church has been one of Edinburgh’s religious focal points for approximately 900 years. The present church dates from the late 14^th century, though it was extensively restored in the 19^th century, and is protected as a category A listed building.»
As you can see from my pictures, there is a reason why this stunning piece of architecture (that is what a church is for me, I’m not religious) is a Grade I listed building. It is a MUST for visitors to the city, and if you are a returning visitor, chances are you will be returning to St. Giles, too.
Frequent concerts are being held at this free of charge facility (the concerts may not always be free). It is a huge, imposing, slightly intimidating structure — which of course is the point of all such religious buildings. But today, even the not quite so penitent men (and women) will pass. ;)
Amenities include toilets and a café. Photos, obviously, are allowed. Since this is a premium attraction in Edinburgh’s old town, expect it to get busy during the summer months.

That’s great! I’ve been there twice. The second time I met a choir which is really amazing. After listening we were deeply moved. The decorations in the cathedral is very delicate. Really worthy visiting.

This is a beautiful and old cathedral located on the Royal Mile. Free admission but donation preferred. Upon entry you can see and smell the history in the air. The sunlight shines through its huge stained glass windows and lights up the massive room with a glow. It so quite and peaceful in here. Worth ducking your head in and taking the time to walk around a bit.

Se você está indo para o Castelo, você vai passar quase que sem querer por essa igreja. Eu vou tentar te convencer a fazer um rolê por dentro dela –com respeito é claro.
A St. giles também é conhecido como High Kirk e de fora, a bela igreja gótica do século 15 (informação roubada do guia de viagens) exibe suas torres e pontas. Esses dão fotos lindíssimas, ainda mais se você ganhou um dia de sol.
O interior é igualmente lindíssimo. Com estátuas de anjos, vitrais e bandeirinhas com os brasões e símbolos das tradicionais famílias escocesas. Descendo algumas escadas, quase escondido no cantinho da igreja, uma sala que coleciona muitas bandeiras, vão até o teto. Olhando com carinho, você vai ver símbolos engraçados além de muitos unicórnios –eles podem até não existir para você, mas para os escoceses eles existem e servem de simbolo para o país.
A entrada é gratuita e na porta ainda tem muito atrativo para os turistas. Tocadores de bagpiper (a gaita de folie) vestidos a caráter (kilt!!!). Em épocas comemorativas, o ponto de encontro é aqui na igreja.
No Halloween, uma enorme festa acontece bem em frente a igreja. Com danças, músicas e muita gente fantasiada (mas nada daquele carnaval americano, as fantasias lembram o lado assustador do halloween, que aqui ainda é levado a sério). É bem interessante, recomendo. Mas vá bem agasalhado!

Beautiful old church on the Royal Mile. You can’t miss it if you’re looking for it.
No pictures inside unless you’re willing to pay some money but other than that, it’s free! Wander in and just take everything in. The church is really pretty.
There’s also this room in the back and it’s pretty entertaining. The right terms for everything escapes me but basically, different families can pick what they want displayed? (I’m not really sure, I wasn’t really paying attention when someone was explaining it to me). So anyway, you have like these old, regal and «traditional» orb-​things and then right next to one of them is something covered in rainbows and smiley faces. It doesn’t sound funny in print but you should definitely check it out!
There’s also a gift shop and tourist information desk.

Beautiful cathedral located on the Royal Mile.
We attended Sunday mass at 10am and were awed by the beautiful sounds of the choir and tremendous pipe organ.
We returned for a free 6pm pipe organ «concert» which was excellent.

St. Giles is absolutely beautiful. Even from the outside, you can really get a sense that exorbitant amounts of time and skill went into creating this landmark church. I really wanted to hear the choir, but the line to get in was ridiculously long. If we had more time to burn in Edinburgh, I’m sure it would have been worth the wait. Oh well, I guess this just means I’ll have to go back some day.

Pretty, pretty cathedral right around the corner from our hotel. Free to go in, but there is a suggested donation, which we happily contributed to since this place is quite a work of art. There’s beautiful stained glass windows all along the sides. I was curious to go into the back chapel area but that costed an additional fee and we were in a hurry to see other parts, so we just kinda peeked in. Looked interesting though! There was some cool music playing in the back when we went in. We took some pictures of the interior, windows, carvings on the pews (cherubs), etc. before taking off to take more pics of the impressive edifice. Really enjoyed visiting this cathedral inside and out!

Something about St. Giles Cathedral didn’t sit quite right with me during our visit. I’ve been thinking about it (off and on, that is …*) and concluded that the entirely admirable desire to obtain funds to sustain this cathedral has been stretched beyond a reasonable limit. The gift shop now extends far out into the church itself, taking photos is a separate charge … too many obvious hands out for money too often.
But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that we walked into several other former churches in Edinburgh only to find they’d been converted into government offices, retail space, or in one memorable case, an EDM nightclub. So if you want to preserve ancient churches in a society that’s mostly given up on the whole religion thing, I suppose it’s necessary. But if you’re making it into a tourist trap simply to generate the funds to sustain it, why not go ahead and turn it into a museum?
Okay, rant over. The church itself does have magnificent architecture, stained glass, etc., as one would expect. Not too much that’s truly mindblowing, but worth a visit I suppose.
* Now I’m imagining what my life would be like if I’d simply been thinking about it since my visit. I imagine I’d still be somewhere in Edinburgh mumbling to myself? Upon further reflection, I suppose I’d have died of dehydration.

Walking by this church on a rainy day, we decided to duck inside to keep dry. And perhaps because we just didn’t know what to expect, our jaws completely dropped. The interior is incredible. Every time you look there’s something you didn’t notice before. There are so many alcoves, each more ornate than the last, and the whole place has a peaceful vibe to it. We also attempted looking for the famous angel with bagpipes… keep your eyes peeled in the Thistle Chapel… hint hint…
Definitely well worth a visit, especially because of its great location right on the bustling Royal Mile!

Medieval walls stores all the prayers, thoughts and hopes whispered over the centuries. Generations passed away and now we have short moment to calmly leave our thoughts and hopes in this timeless place. Stop and appreciate this great privilege which you have.

Escape the weather…
Looming over the Royal Mile…
Photos cost extra.

The architecture is amazeballs. Truly incredible. The cathedral (well, High Kirk really but I suppose I’ll call it by the name it’s going by) isn’t enormous but there is so much detail here that you could spend hours gazing at all the carvings, plaques and beautiful stained-​glass windows. I love that there are plaques commending all Edinburgh’s fallen soldiers in history’s many battles. The Thistle Chapel is of particular interest and quite overwhelming with the embellishments. Truly, it’s a beautiful building.
One star docked because of the tourism. Obviously it’s an old and famous building, so tourists will come in droves. I do wish there was a no-​flash rule for photography, because it can be quite distracting when you’re trying to enjoy the history and architecture. It’s also a bit disappointing that there’s a café and a gift shop in the cathedral. I understand the photography fee since these ancient buildings need funds for restoration and upkeep, but the extra tourist add-​ons feel superfluous. Still, it’s absolutely worth a visit for the gorgeous architecture and the heaps of history within the walls.