St Giles 900th

Happy Birthday to you

Sep 07, 2024

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St Giles High Kirk
is celebrating its 900th birthday in style by getting some marvellous new lights installed. This really does cement its place on the Edinburgh skyline as the finest spire or sticky up bit (SOSUB) and I’d be prepared to roll up my sleeves and go bareknuckle with anyone who disagrees.

This long view shows the SOSUBS of (left to right) Edinburgh Castle, The Hub spire, then (in the background) the Scottish National War Memorial at the castle, St Giles crown spire, and The Tron Kirk spire.

You’re basically looking at a compressed Royal Mile squished into one frame with a 500mm lens.

The view from the street is pretty impressive too, especially when the haar rolls in from the North Sea and the beams of light continue into the sky. If only St Giles could work out a way to get £1 from everyone who takes a photo of the spire from the Royal Mile they could pay the leccy bill and a whole lot more.

The King who went to prison
Behind St Giles in Parliament Square is the oldest statue in Edinburgh. Charles II on his nameless nag is an impressive 340 year old life-size lead statue. It weighs 6 tons, was painted white in 1767 (must’ve been the fashion darling) and after the Great Fire of Edinburgh in 1824 it got banged up in Calton Prison for 9 years - for its own protection guv.

The fire raged for 5 days and would have consumed St Giles, melted Chucky Boy and continued much further up the Royal Mile had there not been a brand new Fire Brigade formed just 2 months earlier (I feel a separate post coming on here.) James Braidwood, what a guy, invented fire brigades, and his statue is further round on your journey “behind” St Giles.

I recommend the Charles II statue for its grand stature in a surprisingly little-visited location. It’s essentially a car park (the grave of John Knox is under the tarmac of space No. 23) so it is best visited in the evening or at weekends when there are fewer cars. The horse has some truly majestic features which lovers of leaden balls will appreciate. Go visit.

I love the story, related by Stephen Preston who works as heritage officer in St Giles about a 1798 local newspaper report of two golfers chipping balls up and over the cathedral.

Stephen says: ''They claim they started in Parliament Square just behind us in the High Street and they found the golf balls in front in Advocates Close.

"Up and over - 50 metres, "

In 2022 St Giles became the focus of royal pilgrimage to honour Queen Elizabeth II. A service was held at the cathedral before the Queen's coffin was taken to London. Thousands of people lined the streets and stood in line for hours in the cathedral to pay their respects.

St Giles is a place of great celebration and events throughout the years and centuries and I’ve loved taking images of many special times. Sometimes lying on your back is the best way to demonstrate the awe and wonder of special places and spaces.

St Giles is often at the centre of celebrating Scottish culture and has been a great place for the annual celebrations of our national bard for Burns & Beyond events. The scenes below were when the event became a double celebration for Chinese New Year and Burns night.

Rabbie and the dragon

One of the most beautiful scenes in this fantastic place was the installation of Les Colombes (The Doves) by artist Michael Pendry. It featured a winding column of more than 2,000 origami paper doves flying the full length of St Giles.

The main space inside St Giles is awesome but there is another, smaller source of awe: The Thistle Chapel. A separate wee chapel at the back of the building is an amazingly ornate place of worship for royalty. In 1911 the Thistle Chapel became home to the Knights of the Thistle - Scotland's ancient order of chivalry and nobility which still meets at St Giles. It is full of intricate stone and wood carvings and is a very special space to visit.

Edinburgh is so lucky that it has largely prevented the building of tall buildings in the city centre. The tower of St Giles really does mark the centre of Old Edinburgh and it would be a travesty if the view of it was blocked by modern stuff. The new lights will hopefully remind folk of the importance of our skyline and how crucial it is to preserve it.

If you get lucky and plan well, you can use that beautiful St Giles crown spire as a dancing partner for the moon.

My favourite view of Edinburgh has to be this spire with a Scotland-wide view behind it at sunset, it has such a brilliant silhouette. Those are the three Forth bridges and the Trossachs mountains back and beyonder.

The views over Edinburgh from the crown at the top of the tower are unbeatable. I’ll need to do a separate post about the view from up here and the amazing history about the panoramas. Meanwhile, if you want to bend your head a little then follow the link below to see a 360 view from the crown spire (and a few other favourite Edinburgh spots.)

WARNING: if you have an allergic reaction to EOCT (Early Onset Christmas Tat) then you should know that this is an advent immersive adventure and there will be carol singing, twinkly lights and jingly stuff. I reckon it’s worth it though.

After clicking the link go to the bottom left Advent Scenes menu to select the St Giles one.
https://tours.3dscotland.co.uk/advent/

HEART by Michael Pendry in St Giles for Burns & Beyond 2024

St Giles is the heart of Edinburgh and I’m so glad that the new lights will bring it back onto the horizon of the city after dark.

I caught the lights in their experimental…oooh, blue looks good, but let’s see…ooyah, red is stonking man…whoah, look at…no wait…WHAT…oh yeah man…check out that purple…THAT IS GLORIOUS…phase.

Thanks for being here and reading to the end. I hope your synapses were tickled a wee bit and I’d really like to thank all of the new subscribers who opted to pay a wee bit. It genuinely makes a TON of difference to know that what I do is valuable to you, and it helps fund my various wanderings to bring you visual delights. I’m very grateful.

Thanks neebs.
Maybe see you out there.
TD

PS - if you want to see more of St Giles stuff and even make a small donation please drop over to their website below. They currently have a funky new 3D game that has been developed…ooooh.
https://www.stgilescathedral.org.uk/