Holyrood Abbey

Holyrood Abbey stands roofless beside the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the eastern foot of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, its ruined nave a survivor of one of Scotland’s most storied religious houses. King David I established the abbey in 1128 as a community of Augustinian canons; tradition holds that he acted in gratitude after surviving an encounter with a charging hart during the Feast of the Cross. Rebuilt between roughly 1195 and 1230, the church grew into a grand cruciform building with an aisled nave, twin western towers, transepts and a central tower. Its importance was as much political as spiritual: the Scottish Parliament convened here across the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton was sealed within in 1328, and James II was crowned in 1437. Kings and queens were married, crowned and buried here, among them David II and James V. The Reformation and the raids of the Rough Wooing stripped its wealth, and after 1570 only the nave endured as a parish church. A misjudged reconstruction of the roof in stone proved too heavy, and the vault gave way in 1768, leaving the shell that visitors see today.