Greyfriars Kirk & Kirkyard

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  • Address
    Candlemaker Row, Old Town
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  • Phone
    226 5429
  • Website
  • Transport
    bus: 2, 23, 27, 41, 42 or 45

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Lonely Planet review

The church of Greyfriars is famous as the spot where the National Covenant was signed in 1638, rejecting Charles I's attempts to impose episcopacy and affirming the independence of the Scottish Church. Many who signed it were later executed in the Grassmarket and, in 1679, 1200 Covenanters were held prisoner in terrible conditions in an enclosure in the far corner of the kirkyard.

Inside the church is a small exhibition on the National Covenant, and an original portrait of Greyfriars Bobby dating from 1867. At 12.30pm on Sundays there are church services in Gaelic. The Kirkyard is one of Edinburgh's spookiest spots. Many famous Edinburgh names are buried here, including poet Allan Ramsay (1686-1758), architect William Adam (1689-1748), and William Smellie (1740-95), editor of the first edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica. In the southwest corner is the Covenanters' Prison, a series of enclosed tombs reputedly haunted by a poltergeist.