A heavy iron horseshoe set into the cobblestones marks the site of the former gallows in the Grassmarket. For centuries, this valley floor served as Edinburgh’s primary marketplace, filled with grain carts and cattle. It also functioned as…
Edinburgh's Religious Wars
This walking tour traces the fierce 16th- and 17th-century struggles of the Reformation and Covenanting eras that permanently reshaped Scotland.
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1. Grassmarket
2. Greyfriars Kirk
The jagged, crow-stepped gables of Greyfriars Kirk rise above a graveyard packed so tightly with stone that the earth seems made of headstones. Opened in sixteen twenty, this building served as the first church constructed in Edinburgh…
3. Greyfriars Covenanters' Prison
The Greyfriars Covenanters' Prison is a sunken, walled-off section of the Greyfriars Kirkyard, enclosed by high stone barriers and heavy iron gates. In sixteen seventy-nine, twelve hundred men who fought against King Charles the Second…
4. The Magdalen Chapel
The Magdalen Chapel is distinguished by the seventeenth-century stained glass set into the windows of its south wall. It remains the only place in Scotland where medieval glass survives in its original location. During the reformation,…
5. St Giles' Cathedral
St Giles’ Cathedral dominates the Royal Mile with its distinct crown steeple, a stone spire shaped like a royal coronet that rises high above the Edinburgh skyline. This building served as the focal point of the Scottish Reformation. In…
6. Mercat Cross
The Mercat Cross in Edinburgh is a tall, octagonal stone structure topped by a stone unicorn carrying a shield. It sits near the high street as a royal landmark where public proclamations were read for centuries. When Charles the Second…
7. John Knox House
The John Knox House displays a wooden gallery jutting out over the sidewalk, a rare survivor of the timber-fronted architecture that once dominated old Edinburgh. It dates to the late fifteenth century, making it one of the city's oldest…