While our first day in Edinburgh was more of an orientation and getting a feel of the city, we did visit one attraction fully on that day, and that was the St Giles' Cathedral. It was located on the Royal Miles anyway, so it was just a no brainer to just pop in for a look around. Plus it's free entry, and it was already evening, so there weren't much people around. This was after we've wandered all around the cathedral's front and back and saw the lovely Supreme Court building.
To be honest, I didn't really planned it as part of a place of interest to visit. It was more of a if-we-happens-to-pass-by kinda place. Just so happen we did pass it by on our first day. Above is the front view of the cathedral. It kinda reminded me of Notre Dame in Paris.
Walking through it's front door, the carvings on the arch and walls were lovely. Very much in detailed, as lovely as those from Notre Dame. I love gothic churches, so I'm glad this was one of them. One of the reason I wanted to visit the church was also to light a memorial candle to my cousin who passed away while I was away in Scotland, hence I was not able to attend his funeral. So this was my way of saying goodbye to him.
Walking in, I love seeing this very modern looking poster of the cathedral. I thought it was a nice contrast to have something so bright, colourful and modern on display in this gothic old looking cathedral.
There were also more medieval designed posters and flags inside with the church name on them. I like this one above because of the bright orange and gold colours. It was just like those gold shinning thing on the roof of the church which I shown in one of my previous post about
symbols in Edinburgh city.
Inside, you would first noticed how dark it was, and how the ceilings were. And the whole church seems to be illuminated by the lights of the stained glass. It was still quite bright outside, so I was wondering if this was sunlight that was shinning through those glasses, or maybe they have electrical lightings now that illuminate the stained glass? Ha. Maybe I'll go find out in my next visit.
The hallways were just lovely, with the high ceiling arch, kinda similar in design like the
John Ryland's Library we saw in Manchester. Perhaps they were all built during the same period? It was definitely a glorious period for architecture! Why can't we have such lovely buildings in our own era now????
A full view of all the domes and arches and the front of the church.
There were also individual sides just as lovely inside where you could sit and admire the beauty of this place. As well as the usual corners on both side with memorials and quite corners dedicated to different Saints.
One of the pieces I read about and was hoping to see was their grand organ, one of the biggest I've seen perhaps. It was located somewhere on the right side of the church. It was practically covering one side of the wall!
Here is a fuller clearer view of the organ. I don't know, I wasn't expecting it to be so industrial looking. Perhaps I was expecting something French-like, like those in the Phantom of the Opera, perhaps ivory in colour, and with decorations on it. What I got was metallic looking piles with clean lines.... I didn't have a feeling of like or dislike about it, just surprised and acceptance.
The various corners were also almost like museum art pieces. I will do a post on all the beautiful pieces I saw inside this church. For this one above, I just wanted to show the lovely black and while tiles of this little corner. I love tiles, and how by changing their design or colours you can really put in some character to a room or corner. Fun fact, my kitchen tiles in both my home is in an unconventional dark grey colour. And it just kinda works! I wanted dark red, like those apartment I've stayed at in Italy, but I guess red was too much for my husband to accept :P
There was a section with medieval looking flags hanging on both sides of the hall way. This gave me a very Game of Thrones or Old England pride kind of vibes. I love it. I love the colours and design of these flags. I saw so many in my trip to Scotland. It's strange. I've always seen England as the main country to visit in Europe, but after my first trip there almost more than 15 years ago, I never did have an urge to revisit. Yet after a brief trip to Scotland a year ago, I am now going back again to explore more!
Beautiful Royal Plaque hanging at one of the arch hallway. Note the lovely golden ornaments decorating the arches as well. Love the details of that. It's like saying, there is nothing too small, nothing too plain that we cannot add richness to it.
As it was evening around 5pm or so, there weren't many people inside the church, so we could really take our time to appreciate it. However I did wanted to visit a special chapel that is found inside this church. I wasn't very hopeful that it would be opened, as I've read many disappointing review of people who have visited it and found it closed. Since I was already in the church, I took note of the time and made sure to have enough time to visit the chapel before their closing hours. More on the chapel coming up in future post!
Above, probably a memorial of someone in one corner of the church. Look how beautiful everything is, the tomb/sculpture, the lovely tile design, the stained glass, even the benches built in for visitors to take a seat on. So so beautiful. I love places like these, even though I am not religious. Sometimes the beauty of places like these can make me almost shed tears.
Signing off with some official opening hours of the church and worship timing in case you may be interested.
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