8 April 2023
Woke up to another beautifully clear but cool day. Headed down the Royal Mile to the Canongate Kirk and Kirkyard. This is a very historic and important church, which started being built in 1688. It is the kirk of the royal family when they are in Edinburgh, and was where Zara Phillips married. My 5th Gt Grandmother, Charlotte Menzies, was buried here in 1812. Her burial record states that she was “buried 4 foot North of Sharps Close on the south of Smith”. Presumably, my 5th Gt Grandfather, John Anderson, is also buried with her. There are no entries for either of them in any transcripts of the head stones, so I knew that we wouldn’t find a head stone for them but I was wondering if the description would make sense once I visited the kirkyard. Unfortunately, it didn’t and no one at the church was able to help me with this - more investigating to be done. My 4th Gt Grandparents, James Gilfillan and Charlotte Anderson married in this church in 1816. While the church was locked, we were lucky that a lady arrived to drop off some flowers and was happy to let us in to have a quick look. It is a very bright and welcoming space which the lady told has us not much changed since the late 1600s. Where the large window is there used to be an organ, but other than that it is much the same as when first built. It was so special to be given the opportunity to explore the kirk and the kirkyard.
After we left the church, we headed towards the Palace of Holyroodhouse. On the way we stopped at a tea room called “Clarinda”. Clarinda was a close friend of Robert Burns and is buried at the Canongate Kirkyard. At the tearooms we had a real Scottish breakfast of porridge and Scottish tea -yummy. We then spent a couple of hours exploring the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the Holyroodhouse Abbey. The commentary was excellent and done in a very interactive way (not just an audio recording), and we both learnt lots about the history of the palace as well as how is it used by the current royal family.
Using our 48 hour bus pass, we then travelled out to Leith which is located on the Firth of Forth. Leith is a lovely and very picturesque coastal village at the mouth of the River Leith. We spent some time exploring this historic village which included a pub that had first opened in 1434. The history is insane! In the 1841 census, my 5th Gt Grandmother, Marion Law, and two of her sons, Robert and Henry Gilfillan, were living at 66 Constitution Street in Leith. Rog and I found the house, which probably looks very much the same as it did in 1841. Henry was a customs officer at the time, and we also found the original customs house where he would have worked. It is very exciting to discover these family connections, and to be walking in their footsteps. We enjoyed the bus tour of Leith so much that we decided to sit on the bus for a second time around to continue to take in the sights. The Hop on Hop off buses are such great value for money, and an efficient way to explore a city. Tomorrow we will be exploring Edinburgh Castle and Roslyn Chapel (of Dan Brown fame).
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