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Built over time
The church was enlarged from the 14th century to the 16th
The first church of St Giles' was a small Romanesque building of which only fragments remain. In the 14th century it was replaced by the current building, which was enlarged between the late 14th and early 16th centuries. It was probably founded in the 12th century.
John Knox
In 1559 John Knox became the minister
In 1559 the church became Protestant with John Knox, the foremost figure of the Scottish Reformation, as its minister. After the Reformation it was internally partitioned to serve multiple congregations as well as secular purposes, such as a prison and a meeting place for the Parliament of Scotland.
1637
A riot in 1637 over a prayer book helped start the Covenanters
In 1633 Charles I made St Giles' the cathedral of the newly created Diocese of Edinburgh. His attempt to impose a Prayer Book caused a riot in St Giles' on 23 July 1637, which precipitated the formation of the Covenanters. Tradition says a market trader named Jenny Geddes threw her stool at the dean.
Thistle Chapel
The Thistle Chapel was added in 1909 to 1911
The church was altered between 1829 and 1833 by William Burn and restored between 1872 and 1883 by William Hay. William Chambers hoped to make it a Westminster Abbey for Scotland, with memorials to notable Scots. The Thistle Chapel, designed by Robert Lorimer, was added between 1909 and 1911.
Day 1, midday
It comes after Edinburgh Castle. Then Royal Mile.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article St Giles' Cathedral, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.