Religious, Spiritual sights in Edinburgh
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Greyfriars Kirk & Kirkyard
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…
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Duddingston Parish Church
Poised on a promontory overlooking Duddingston Loch, this church is one of the oldest buildings in Edinburgh, with some interesting medieval relics at the kirkyard gate: the Joug, a metal collar that was used, like the stocks, to tether criminals and sinners, and the Loupin-On Stane, a stone step to help gouty and corpulent parishioners get onto their horses. The early-19th-century watchtower inside the gate was built to deter body-snatchers.
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