Kirking Nine to Five

Day: 266

Towns / Cities Visited: 176

Countries Visited: 30

Steps Taken Today: 15,642

Steps Taken Around the World: 4,310,487

Our final day in Edinburgh saw us awake to a bitterly cold morning. The kind of cold which calls huddled masses to the side of radiators and begs you to slip on your thermals before you dare do anything else. Tea and toast warming our insides and donned in every shred of winter clothing we carried, to the point that nought but our faces were left uncovered, we stepped out for another day of adventure.

By the time we had made the walk into the city centre from Leith, we had warmed sufficiently, and turning onto the Royal Mile, we made our way towards the unmissable gothic beauty that is St. Giles Cathedral capped with its crown steeple. Sure, it doesn’t have the height and pure pointiness of The Hub, but it has more delicate tracery and artistic stonework than you can poke a stick at. This church, which sits pride of place along the famed thoroughfare between Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood House, has been in residence here since the 14th century, although a church on this site was likely first founded in the 12th century. As with most it grew over time, being expanded up until the 16th century, and later, in the 19th and 20th, it underwent some alterations. Despite its multi-era renovations, it still holds onto its medieval good looks, and a good thing too. Its longevity has seen it go from being a Catholic to a Protestant…