Duddingston Kirk

Bright spring sunshine so a quick foray onto Royal Ground in the shape of the Queen's Park. Looking down here onto the little village kirk of Duddingston, sitting on a little knoll above the Loch. And all this in the heart of Edinburgh!

This ancient church was originally built in or around 1124 by Dodin, a Norman knight, on land granted to Kelso Abbey by King David I of Scotland.

The entrance is notable for its gatehouse, built as a lookout point to deter bodysnatchers in the early 19th century. The Edinburgh bodysnatchers, known as 'resurrectionists', stole recently-buried corpses to sell to anatomists.

Duddingston has long been a favourite location for many of Edinburgh's artists and professionals. The novelist Walter Scott was ordained an elder at Duddingston in 1806. A famous former minister in the mid 19th century was the Reverend John Thomson, also a notable painter and friend of Raeburn and Turner, who was widely admired locally. His pastoral ministry gave rise to the popular Scottish expression "We're a' Jock Tamson's bairns!

A little further round the road this iconic view of the Castle was at its best in this light.