Appreciating St Giles

It’s been more than 12 years since I first stepped through the doors of St Giles’ Cathedral along Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, and I’ve probably been through the doors a dozen times since then. Admittedly, not much has changed since that first visit other than me.

On my first visit, I was 27 years old and was new to the city. Heck, I was new to the world of international travel and European architecture. Everywhere I went, everything I saw, was amazing and beautiful and old and just, well, wonderful! I appreciated the magnificent building for its age and location as well as for its beauty.

But I didn’t know enough about the world to look below the surface and I was in too much of a hurry to see everything to really take the time to appreciate it on a deeper level.

Subsequent visits were often made in haste whilst showing friends around the city – or when I had a short window of time to idle away before meeting friends elsewhere. And each time, I promised myself I’d return for a proper, full-on visit with plenty of time to really explore.

And that exploration took place today!

I won’t bore you with the magnificent building’s history because you can find loads of information on the Internet about it already. But I will tell you that it was an amazing experience and an extremely beautiful building. I highly recommend you take the time to explore St Giles’ if you’re in the city. But if you can’t make it, here are some photos as a consolation prize!

You can see more photos from my roof-top tour here.