Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh St Giles' Cathedral (2/2)

 

Before we move on to the lovely little chapel inside St Giles' Cathedral, this post is dedicated to all the beautiful things I found inside of it. I mean, I did already post one entry about the church itself, but that was mainly focusing on the building itself. This post is meant more to highlight the details of the 'art' pieces I found myself drawn to inside. Not sure if 'art' is the right term to use, or religious artefact? So let's start. Above, stained glasses and stone carvings adorn the place.

The stone carving was everywhere, and very detailed. I thought they were beautiful, but I have read that Rosslyn Church in Roslin Scotland has an even more lovely interior! I can't imagine it, so I'm making sure I'll be visiting it in my next trip!

Somewhere in the middle, there was a small podium? Probably for where the bishop can stand to give his sermons. Usually I would see this made of wood, and quite plain in design. But the ones here were made of stones, and with lovely carvings on it. Take note of the fuller picture above.

And now look at this zoom in photo on just one of the many carvings found on those stone stairs up to the podium. I bet there is a book documenting all these information about the church on sale somewhere. It wouldn't make sense for me to photograph everything when we have the internet ready for us to explore in details. So I'm just leaving some bits and pieces here as a journal of my visit here. 

I've seen many stained glasses before in churches, and in museums. But I don't recall seeing the colours of the stained glasses shinning on to the concrete floor before. And yet here I was, standing there in awe of this beautiful sight before me. It wasn't anything special, and not many people were even aware of it. Yet I stopped, and snapped this photo of the lights on the floor. It was a keepsake for me. A moment in time to remember how beautiful those lights were <3

After visiting the Louvre in Paris on my first trip to Europe and trying to capture almost every stained glass I saw there and then, I would say I've given up the notion of photographing everything I chance upon, cause it was just endless! Yet I still take random photos of it whenever I feel like it. I just thing stained glass is such a beautiful art.

The colours on this one was just wild! Again, I'm sure each and every piece has a story to tell. But maybe just look at them and feel them? That's all I ever do anyway. Just be in awe at them.

I love those that is colour coordinated too, with a certain themed colour like this red white and blue piece. 

Or a typical one like this of Jesus in probably every scene. 

Besides stained glass, there were also stone sculpture and maybe bronze pieces like this one of angels.

Here is another one that looked more like a painting. I love the colour of it, almost like it depicting an era in the past. Almost like middle eastern art. Interesting I've also visited many churches in my Balkan trip in 2025, and found new love for Orthodox Churches there as well. Their 'art' pieces was so different from anything I've seen before. So no matter how many churches I've visited, I would always visit more, cause there is no two that is ever the same. Everyone is unique, just like any sunrise and sunset, any botanical garden or museums etc. 

A simple piece of a man sitting on a chair. I'm sure he is a famous person, but I did't look him up....

I did learn a few things during my church visit, like seeing this guy and learning that he is the founder of Boys' Brigade 1883! In our daily lives growing up, we just took for granted that school activities like the uniform group was just there. Well here I connected the dots that not only the Boys' Brigade, but St John was also founded in Scotland! For a country that is not that big, they do produce, invent, founded many things that we just took for granted today!

There was a full statue of John Knox, this time standing in full height inside the church. He is a very famous in Scotland, probably due to religion. I am unfortunately not very familiar with his works. 

Above are just plaques and memorials, but I am posting it here because of Sir James Young Simpson, who discover Chloroform and its use in surgery. I mean, maybe it's because I came from the east, but it seems that people in the east doesn't seems to be very well known in discovering stuff..... Am I being whitewashed here? Or is that just a fact?

Remember I was telling you about a special chapel inside this cathedral? Well, above is Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer who built the Thistle Chapel. I will show you more about this chapel in the next two post!

Before we left the cathedral, one lighted candle, in memory of my cousin Lim Sin Chuan who passed away April 2025. He was only 59 years old and I have helped looked after him in 2024 when he was hospitalised. I was glad I visited him in January 2025 just before I left Penang. He had been discharged then and I had offered to buy him some food to tied him over since he lives alone. That was the last time I saw him, and I was glad it was a happy moment that we shared. 

Me, standing here in St Giles' Cathedral. I will be back again this April 2026.

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh St Giles' Cathedral (1/2)

 

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. 

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh Old Town Royal Mile Walk (5/5 - Castle Views)

 

The target of our Royal Mile walk was to reach Edinburgh Castle. You know how you research a place before you visit, but is never confident how it would turn out unless you're really there in person? So this walk for me was like finding my footing in this city, knowing the length of the Mile, the location of things, and how easy it was to get anywhere. So it was exciting when I finally reached my end point and see the sun set at the castle :)  We were due to visit it the next day at 930am :) 

But here and now, it was just time for us to explore the grounds outside the castle. It was basically just an empty concrete square. But at the side of it, there are some monuments to be seen. Like this one for Scottish Horse. Why horse? Well the next photo has more information on it.

It was nice seeing how people honour the animals that serves them.

Above is the view opposite of the castle entrance. It was a very huge square. Just at the left of that photo was the Witches' Well. I forgot about it the first time I was there, but went again the next day to properly took a photo of it. Witches, something very much mysterious yet cruel in Scottish history. 

We walked around the edges of the square. Since the castle was on top of a hill, from there you could look down on the whole of Edinburgh. Facing the castle, above is the view at the left side of the square. We did eventually visit the below area when we went to visit Castle Terace the next morning. 

Here is a further view of the area looking more towards the Museum area. 

And above is the view to the right of the square, overlooking residential areas, the New Town, and sea. This was where we walked on Sunday when we visited Dean's Village and Stockbridge area. Through out our stay in Edinburgh, we walked everywhere. We only took public transport once, which was our last day when we took the bus to the airport. We also took a Uber to Castle Terrace to meet up with our tour guide for our trip to Isle, and that was it. I've yet to visit Leith side of Edinburgh. And I just feel that I would visit again even after our 2026 trip.... 

Leaving you with a selfie of us on our first day in Edinburgh as we stood outside Edinburgh Castle. 

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh Old Town Royal Mile Walk (4/5 - Symbols)

A tourist sight, without a doubt, a Scottish man in full traditional kilt and playing a bagpipe. They are buskers, yet for tourist like me, where else could I get a chance to see this and listen to the traditional music of Scotland? So in some way, aside from being a busker, I think these artist also provide some service in terms of  culture to the city, they are a symbol of Scotland itself. And at the Royal Mile, there were many things that are symbolic. 

As I mentioned about the many Close along the Royal Mile, each Close is different and unique in their own way. Many have decorative items on them, perhaps symbolising something that I am sadly unaware of. I often don't travel with a tour guide, and rely solely on the internet for information about the places I visit. These days, I try to mix and match my travel, to have a balance of organised tour and solo wandering.

I also took this lovely photo of stone pillars near the Supreme Court. I love tunnel looking photos, and especially if they are made of ancient architecture. This photo just represent so much strength, and history, for justice!

Right at the top of St Gile's Cathedral, gold crosses decorates the tower structure of the church. They shine brightly as the setting sunlight hits them. I remember how golden Paris looked when I was there, they too have many structures with gold or gold-painted pieces on them that just shines and glitter in he sunlight, perhaps symbolising wealth and glory? Or even of heavenly things? 

I also saw these three cute nuns at the wall near St Gile's Cathedral. Can't remember whether it was part of the building, or nearby. I found art pieces like this cute and charming, something you won't see much of in tourist information. These are things you see only if you have the time to wander and explore. These are things that make your trip unique only to you :)  I feel that beauty is all around us, and am quite happy just wandering around a foreign town or city just finding these little things that make my day :)

Walking around, I also notice this fish sign on top of the entrance of a building. I can't remember what building was it, but it was a corner building along the Royal Mile. Fishes like these reminds me of olden days Christianity.  So I stopped to take a photo of it.

There was also a picture of a stock. No idea where I took this. I guess what I am trying to say is, keep your eyes open when you're visiting Scotland, or anywhere! There are so much more to see than the usual tourist sights!

Of course there are also subtle historical sites that you might not be aware of unless you've done your research. For example here lies the last public execution site in Edinburgh, perhaps something not all visitors might be interested in, lol. But I thought that it was cool that they have marked that sight, to show that it was important to them, no matter how small the sign was. 

And above is what the sign looked like, a single copper looking "I" logo in the middle of the road. There are other similar signs like these in Edinburgh, subtle and unnoticed by the public. Yet they are still there, preserved by the city, safe guarding their stories :)

Lastly, a photo of a horse and a modern bike. I thought it a nice contrasting photo to take, and I also love the colour scheme of the photo. Surely, a photo could also be meaningful and carry some message? For this, it was the mode of transportation, from the old days to the current new day :P  My photos are my little contribution to art. My blog, my little documentation of the life I've lived.