Canongate Kirk
Attractions Edinburgh
Canongate Kirk Attractions
The Kirk of Holyrood House
The Beginning Canongate Kirk or The Kirk of the Canongate has had two buildings: at the Abbey of the Holy Rood (1128), now lying in ruins beside the Palace of Holyrood House; and here in the heart of the Canongate. In 1688 King James VII (James II of England) took over the Abbey church for use as the Chapel of the Order of the Thistle, and he offered to build Canongate Kirk in its place. It cost roughly £1,900 which came from a fund left to the Crown by a rich merchant, Thomas Moodie, whose coat of arms can be seen above the entrance of the Kirk. The building was completed in 1690, after King James VII vacated the throne; and the keys were delivered to the Minister of the Canongate in 1691. The Royal Arms, also above the entrance, are those of King James, with the shield of Nassau placed in the centre to make them the arms of King William who succeeded him.
Canongate Kirk Chapel Royal
The church had a royal beginning. King David I was riding alone in the forest near the present grounds of Holyrood House, when he was attacked and unhorsed by a white stag, which was about to gore him. Suddenly a vision of the Holy Cross
(or Rood) appeared between the stag’s antlers. The King took courage from this and the stag took flight. In thanksgiving for his deliverance, the King founded the Abbey in 1128 in honour of the Holy Cross, the Virgin and all Saints. The Abbey church served both as a parish church for the people of Canongate, and as the Chapel Royal where many of the Sovereigns of Scotland were baptised, married, crowned and buried. The last King to be crowned there was Charles I in 1633. At the Reformation in 1560, the church became known as the Kirk of Holyrood House (the Kirk of Canongate), and the people of Canongate continued to worship there until 1688.
Canongate Kirk King David and the White Stag
The legend of King David and the white stag is depicted throughout the building, notable in the King David Aisle: first, in the picture by Stanley Cursiter RSA; and second, in the communion table’s embroidered frontal panel which was designed, fashioned and presented by devoted members of the congregation. The story is also represented outside the church, at the apex of the front wall, by the gilded stag’s head and antlers, presented to the Kirk by King George VI.
​The inscriptions on the plaque below reads: SIC ITUR AD ASTRA “This is the path to heaven.”
Canongate Kirk Renovations
Considerable changes to the interior were carried out after World War II. Two major 19th century additions to the church were removed: the wall which blocked off the nave from the apse; and the side galleries. At the same time, new furnishings were presented: particularly the stalls in the apse, The Royal Pew, the Governor’s Pew and the Choir Stalls. Further extensive work both outside and inside, including the restoration of the 1817 ceiling, was completed in 1991 to restore and conserve the building and to mark its 300th anniversary, the money for this came not only from the congregation but from every section of the community, and included generous support from every adult member of the Royal Family.
Thomas Moodie’s Coat of Arms
The inscribed on the tablet on the front of Canongate Kirk reads: In 1688 King James VII | Ordained that the mortification
|of Thos. Moodie granted in 1649 to | build a church should be applied | to the erection of this structure. Above the inscription Thomas Moodie’s Coat of Arms.
Canongate Kirk Edinburgh Castle and Palace of Holyrood House
The Palace of Holyrood House and Edinburgh Castle still lie within the Parish of Canongate and have pews on either side of the centre aisle of the Kirk, on the fronts of which are appropriate coats of arms.
Canongate Kirk Ministers
The floor of the apse bears the names and dates of Ministers of Canongate since the Reformation in 1560. The ministry of two of these, The Reverend Thomas White and The Very Reverend Ronald Selby Wright (who was widely known as the Radio Padre during World War II) spanned almost ninety years.
Canongate Kirk Royal Scots
Canongate Kirk is recognised as the Military Church in Scotland’s Capital City. Above the nave hang the Old Colours of the 1st Battalion, The King’s Own Scottish Borderers, Laid up in 1976 in the presence of their Colonel-in-Chief, HRH Princess Alice, duchess of Gloucester; and the 7th/9th Royal Scots (The Dandy Ninth), laid up in 1986 at a service attended by their Colonel-in-Chief, HRH Princess Anne, The Princess Royal. In 1983, on the 350th anniversary of the raising of the Regiment, The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) adopted Canongate as their Regimental Kirk, as recorded on a plaque on the wall beside the pulpit. The pulpit belonged to the famous preacher Dr Thomas Chalmers, and was moved here from Chalmers Church near the junction of the West Port and the Grassmarket when it closed in 1949.
Canongate Kirk Craft Guilds
Historic links with the craft guilds which once flourished in the old Burgh of Canongate are recalled by the emblems on the front of the gallery.
The Canongate Kirk Visitors Centre
The Visitor Centre at the entrance of the Church demonstrates the link between the first building at Holyrood and the present building here in Canongate. The Mortification Board of 1644 was brought from the old church at Holyrood in 1691: the new engraved glass porch at the entrance commemorates the 300 years of continuous worship in this place, 1691-1991. This church is architecturally unique in Scotland. A more complete description of it and a sketch of its history is contained in the Guide on sale in the vestibule. Also available is a Guide to the Churchyard.
Canongate Kirk Organ
The organ in the gallery was designed and built by The Frobenius of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is a memorial to the Very Reverend Ronald Selby Wright CVO, TD, DD, and FRSE, who was Minister of Canongate from 1937 to 1977, and was dedicated on Sunday 15 November 1998. It consists of a great organ, a swell organ, and a pedal organ, with twenty speaking stops in all.
Canongate Kirk War Memorial
To the left of the apse is the Memorial Chapel, opened in 1951 by the Governor of Edinburgh Castle and dedicated to the memory of 40 sons of Canongate who gave their lives in the 1939-45 war. The small glass case to the west of the Table is the memorial of the Dunkirk Veterans’ Association and contains sand from the beaches of Dunkirk. The Roll of Honour of the 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron was unveiled by HM The Queen in 1989. The sculpture of Christus Victor is by Josephina de Vasconcellos.
Canongate Kirk Tapestry
In 1994, a tapestry project was begun as a memorial to those who died during, or since, the Battle of Normandy on 6 June 1944 (D-Day). The Tapestry was conceived to clothe the seat of the apse in such a way as to draw attention to the cross which is the focal point below the large clear window of the apse. It was designed by Hannah Frew Paterson MBE of Glasgow, worked by a team of 23 embroiderers, and its cost met by the Normandy Veterans Association Fife, Lothians and Borders No. 34 Branch and by members and friends of Canongate Kirk.
Thank you
To the Canongate Kirk for the above information
Entry to the Kirk (Church and Burial Ground) is Free but donations are very welcome to enable the Kirk to flourish for many more centuries.
Mercat Cross
Canongate
Royal Mile Edinburgh
The Mercat Cross originally stood in the middle of the road outside the Tolbooth and was moved next to the Tolbooth in the 1730s to make way for the increasing traffic. The Mercat Cross was moved to its present location in the early 1950s. Every town (Burgh) in Scotland had a Mercat cross, which would stand in the middle of a market square and on occasion be the place people would be chain for a crime and have rotten fruit and vegetables thrown at them by passers-by. The Cross was used as a pillory and had Jougs (neck and leg irons attached).
Robert Fergusson
Plaque inscription reads;
Robert Fergusson was born just up the road in Cap & Feather Close (now demolished).
He studied at the Royal High School, Dundee Grammar School and the University of St. Andrews.
The death of his father cut short his life as a student. To support his widowed mother and family he returned home to Edinburgh in 1772 and took an ill-paid job as a copyist clerk in the Commissary Office.
His poetic career lasted just three years. In 1774 he injured himself falling down a flight of steps and was incarcerated in the Edinburgh Bedlam as a madman. Despite his early death, he died at the tender age of 24, he packed an intense outburst of creative energy into the last years of his life. His poetry in Scots expresses the character spirit and very taste and smell of the Edinburgh of his day.
Fergusson is so much the poet of Edinburgh that later figures including Robert Burns, R.L.Stevenson and Robert Garioch all acknowledged him as one of the sources of their inspiration. He is buried in this graveyard.
He was nine years older than Robert Burns but they never met.
Robert Burns on arriving in Edinburgh found Robert Fergusson had been buried here in a pauper's grave.
He paid for the gravestone which you can see if you walk round the left-hand side of the church.
Read on... "The Dark Days", "Caller Oysters", "To The Tron Kirk Bell" and
"Auld Reikie Will Tak Yer Mind Into the Mirk O' Lang Syne"
Plaque presented to our friends the people of Scotland, by the Burns Society of the City of New York and St. Andrew's Society of the State of New York.
Canongate Kirk
Burial Ground
Royal Mile Edinburgh
Among the people who are interred. in the Canongate graveyard are Adam Smith Economist and author of The Wealth of Nations, Sir William Fettes Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Tea and Wine Merchant and founder of Fettes College, Agnes MacAlees (CLARINDA) Robert Burns one true love – the love affair was to last until their death, David Rizzio Mary Queen of Scots private secretary, Robert Fergusson Royal Poet and inspiration to Robert Burns.
David Riccio
(Rizzio) Grave
David Rizzio (Riccio) born 1533 – died 1566. Mary Queen of Scots’ private secretary and confidante, David Rizzio, was assassinated in the Palace of Holyrood House by Mary’s husband, Lord Darnley and a group of his allies on the 9th March 1566. This was his first steps to take over and rule as King. It was a short power struggle as Lord Darnley was murdered on the 10th February 1567, less than one year later. David Rizzio was of Italian descent from near Turin and was known as David Rizzio, David Riccio or David Rizzo.
Adam Smith
1723 – 1790 Grave
Adam Smith lived in Panmure House in Lochend Close in the Canongate and is buried in the Canongate Kirk Graveyard, behind the Canongate Kirk. Adam Smith was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. He was one of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment. In 1776 The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. Smith is cited as the father of modern economics. In 2009 Adam Smith was named among the “Greatest Scots” of all time, in a vote run by Scottish television. The inscription on the paving stone outside Canongate Kirk reads: HERE WITHIN THE CHURCHYARD | OF | CANONGATE KIRK | IS THE GRAVE | OF | ADAM SMITH | 1723 – 1790 | BORN IN KIRKCALDY FIFE | INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED | ECONOMIST | AUTHOR OF | “THE WEALTH OF NATIONS”
Robert Fergusson
(Poet) Grave
Robert Fergusson was the inspiration to Robert Burns to make him the poet he turned out to be. Robert Fergusson died at the age of 24 in 1774. Robert Burns, to show how much respect he had for his fellow artist, paid for his headstone and wrote his inscription.
No sculptur’d marble here, nor pompus lie,
No story’d urn nor animated bust;
This simple stone directs pale Scotia’s way
To pour her sorrows o’er her poet’s dust.
Agnes Maclehose
(Clarinda) Grave
Agnes Maclehose (CRAIG) Agnes Maclehose (1759-1841) was known as Nancy. Nancy first came to Edinburgh to live in Potterrow near the corner with Marshall Street after her husband left her to make his fortune in Jamaica. Robert Burns first meet with Nancy on the 4th December 1787 at afternoon tea and the assignation started. Mishap and misfortune stopped them from meeting for some time but they wrote to each other regularly. The love affair was to last until their death but their last meeting was in December of 1791 when Nancy left for Jamaica to be with her now wealthy husband. Read the famous letters written with code names Nancy being (Clarinda), Rabbie being (Sylvander) and not to forget the love song to Nancy `Ae Fond Kiss’.
Sir William Fettes
Grave Tomb
Sir William Fettes was born in 1750 and died in his home in Charlotte Square Edinburgh. A wealthy land owner with several estates, his main estate at Comleybank where Fettes School was built with money left in his estate to give free education to the poor fatherless children of Edinburgh. It was a boy’s only school until it went fully co-educational in 1981. William Fettes was knighted in 1804 and was Lord Provost of Edinburgh on 2 occasions.
