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Photo: Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
It's often called a Cathedral, but the Church of Scotland brooks no such episcopal entity, and Charles I dubbing it "cathedral" in 1633 was one reason his head was chopped off. Safer to call it "High Kirk", though they're nowadays lenient with first time offenders. The present building is from 14th century with much Victorian Gothic, notably its crowned spire. Highlight is the Chapel of the Order of the Thistle, Scotland's chivalric company of royal knights. Services are M-F at noon and 9:30AM and 11AM on Sunday, with choral music at 6PM.
St Giles' Cathedral, also known as the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is one of three cathedrals in Edinburgh, Scotland. The existing building was begun in the 14th century and extended until the early 16th century; significant alterations were undertaken in the 19th and 20th centuries, including the addition of the Thistle Chapel. St Giles' is closely associated with many events and figures in Scottish history, including John Knox, who served as the church's minister after the Scottish Reformation. The cathedral is administered by the Church of Scotland.
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Mary King (1590-1644) was a clothes merchant and city burgess. She died the year before plague struck and carried off the rest of her family. In 1753 Royal Exchange, now City Chambers, was built over several closes by demolishing their upper storeys, while the lower storeys were used for storage then later blocked off. This means a warren of medieval alleys and low dwellings has been preserved, re-opened in 2003 and visited by guided tour. Almost as weighty as the Exchange is the mass of ghost stories piled on top of the close, woo-ooh! - but the real history is fascinating enough. Book ahead as it often sells out.
A venerable reference library, which you need membership to access, but it has public exhibitions about literature. "Treasures" is its permanent exhibition. But don't stumble in here mistaking it for Central Library across the street.
See Edinburgh#Connect for how to access. The internet stations are in the Learning Centre, and the building houses Central Lending Library, Central Reference Library, Central Children's Library, Edinburgh and Scottish Collections, Art & Design Library and Music Library. It has a wealth of material for research such as old newspapers and maps, but births, marriages and deaths are filed at East Register House by the bus station in New Town.
Thomas Gladstone was a wealthy merchant, and in 1617 he had this house refashioned to accommodate his family and to partly rent out. A "Land" means a tall narrow townhouse from the period when Old Town was cramped and the only space for development was upwards. Typically along the Royal Mile the ground floor was shops and trade, genteel folk lived on the first and second floors, and lower-income residents had to lump up many steps to the upper floors. It's now a museum run by the National Trust for Scotland exhibiting 17th century elite city life, richly furnished and decorated but with no running water. In the 18th century prosperous folk relocated to New Town, where the NTS property at 7 Charlotte Square continues the story.
Museum about money and coins, in the basement of the Palladian pile of the former Bank of Scotland headquarters. Scotland developed a banking sector in the 18th century to support long-distance trade, and still prints its own banknotes.