St Giles' Cathedral

Look at the tower: those crossing buttresses forming a crown were finished in the late 15th century and are still the most recognisable silhouette on the Royal Mile. The church itself is older. There was a church here from the 12th century, and much of the present building was rebuilt after English troops set it on fire in 1385.

1A cathedral without a bishop?

Everyone calls it a cathedral, but it only truly was one for a few decades in the 17th century, when the Stuart kings imposed bishops. The Church of Scotland is Presbyterian and has no bishops, so its proper name is the High Kirk. In 1559 John Knox, the great reformer, became its minister, and from this pulpit he turned St Giles' into the heart of the Scottish Reformation.

Tradition has it that on 23 July 1637 a market trader called Jenny Geddes hurled her stool at the minister reading the new Prayer Book imposed by Charles I.

What is documented is that there was a riot in the church that day, and that the protest led to the National Covenant of 1638 and the wars that followed. Jenny Geddes and her stool belong to the later retelling.

2What to look out for

• The stone crown of the tower, best seen from the High Street side.
• The Heart of Midlothian: a cobbled heart beside the church marking the entrance of the old Tolbooth prison, demolished in 1817. Many locals spit on it as they pass, by tradition.
• The Mercat Cross, to the east, where royal proclamations were read out.