Edinburgh Photo Gallery - Royal Mile (Part 1)

Edinburgh's Old Town is built along a ridge, with the Royal Mile linking the castle iwith Holyrood down below. From this main thoroughfare, many smaller alleys, lanes, and closes extend perpendicularly. Once home to the town's population, its fortunes turned for the worse after the New Town was built, and this area became a crowded slum.

Although founded in the 12th century, St. Giles was mostly built in the 15th and was called the High Kirk. Named after the patron saint of cripples and beggars, it was here where John Knox preached and stripped of its Catholic status in the 1540s as the Reformation swept Europe.

Next door, Parliament Square is home to the courts. At the entrance, I noticed the Mercat Cross, where merchants met to do business and royal proclamations were read. It is an 1885 piece although records showed there was already one as early as 1365.

Heading downhill, I couldn't help but notice how many tourists are around and it's only early June.

The Tron Kirk Market occupies a church that dates from the 17th century. It was commissioned by Charles I in 1633 with the foundation stone laid in 1637. Its name refers to the salt tron, a public weighing beam, outside the church.