St Giles’ Cathedral

St Giles' Cathedral tickets: which one to buy

Entry is free with a suggested donation; the paid extras are the photography permit, sold at a desk inside, and the Thistle Chapel, which is included in the free visit but sometimes closed. Guided tours led by cathedral volunteers run daily for a small charge and are the best introduction to Scottish church history you will get in an hour. Rooftop tours climb into the roof space and out onto the walkway beside the crown spire, in small groups by prior booking, and are the one genuinely special ticket here.

Storytelling and Old Town walking tours include the cathedral and cost several times any of this. The cathedral sits halfway down the Royal Mile, so it is on every visitor's route and there is no queue. Attending a service costs nothing and the choir sings on Sunday mornings and at Evensong. The cafe in the undercroft is open to anyone and is one of the few places on the Royal Mile that is not aimed at visitors.

Visiting St Giles' Cathedral: what to see

A church has stood here since the twelfth century and the present building is largely fourteenth and fifteenth century, though the Victorian restoration reshaped much of what you see. Its crown steeple, a stone lantern held up by eight flying buttresses, was finished around 1500 and is the emblem of Edinburgh's skyline. John Knox was minister here from 1559 and preached the Reformation from this pulpit, which is why the building is sometimes called the mother church of Presbyterianism; a statue of him stands inside.

In 1637 a riot broke out when Charles I's prayer book was read here, an event that led to the Covenant and eventually to civil war across three kingdoms. The Thistle Chapel, added between 1909 and 1911 by Robert Lorimer for the Order of the Thistle, is the finest small Gothic Revival interior in Britain, with carved stalls for sixteen knights and an angel playing bagpipes hidden in the vault. The great west window by Douglas Strachan, installed in 1985 and dedicated to Robert Burns, replaced Victorian glass and caused an argument that has not entirely died down.

St Giles' Cathedral opening hours and the best time to go

Open daily from morning to early evening, with shorter hours on Sundays and in winter, and closure to visitors during services. The Royal Mile is busiest from late morning to evening all summer, and during the Edinburgh festivals in August the street outside becomes a performance space. The cathedral's stained glass, most of it Victorian, is best in the late morning. Rooftop tours run in summer only and stop in wind or rain.

Photography needs the permit. There is no dress code. Allow forty-five minutes inside, longer if a tour is starting. Parliament Square outside holds the old Scottish parliament house and the Mercat Cross, and the castle is a ten-minute walk uphill. Parliament Square is where the Edinburgh festival's street performers gather in August, which makes a quiet visit impossible for most of that month.