St. Mary's Cathedral from Edinburgh Castle
St Mary's or the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary the Virgin
is a cathedral of the Scottish Episcopal Church in Edinburgh,
Scotland. It was built in the late 19th century in the West End of
Edinburgh's New Town. The cathedral is the see of the Bishop of
Edinburgh, one of seven bishops within the Episcopal Church, which is
part of the Anglican Communion. Designed in a Gothic style by Sir
George Gilbert Scott.
In 1689, following the Glorious Revolution, Presbyterianism was
restored in place of episcopacy in the national Church of Scotland. St
Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, as it then was, came under the
Established Church's ministry, resulting in Episcopalians being left
without a cathedral in Edinburgh. For a time the Episcopal residue of
that congregation worshipped in an old woollen mill in Carrubber's
Close, near the site of the present Old Saint Paul's Church. This was
used as a pro-cathedral until the early 19th century, when this
function was served by the Church of St Paul in York Place.
Photo 1178, May 2011