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It is believed that there may have been a church on the site of the present day Edinburgh St. Cuthbert's, which was opened in 1894 (and thought to be the seventh on the site), since Celtic times. The origins of the dedication to St Cuthbert are not certain but it may have been that St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne had a cell at the foot of the Castle Rock, near to the site of the church. In its early years, when St Cuthbert's existed outwith the city wall of Edinburgh and in the county of Lothian and Tweedale, St. Cuthbert's was one of the wealthiest parishes in Scotland but in 1128 it was transferred, along with all of its endowments, to the Abbey of Holyroodhouse, founded in that year by David I. The church was later dedicated by Bishop de Bernham in 1241-1242. In 1633, by Act of Parliament, St Cuthbert's Church was dissolved from Holyrood and, by charter of 29th September of that same year, Charles I annexed it to the newly formed Bishopric of Edinburgh. After the revolution, when the Bishopric was dissolved, the church became independent. Additionally in the 17th century, the once extensive parish of St. Cuthbert's, was reduced in size, both in 1621 when an act of Parliament disjoined several parts of the Burgh of Edinburgh from within St. Cuthbert's parish, and in 1627 when an additional act saw the annexation of Saughton and Ravelston. By 1755 the erection of a Chapel of Ease had become an apparent necessity and in the following year a chapel was opened at the west end of Crosscauseway, which later became the quoad sacra parish of Buccleuch. A succession of Chapels later followed, including Stockbridge Chapel of Ease in 1823 (later Kirk O' Field) and Hope Park Chapel of Ease in 1824 (now the Queens Hall). Since its beginnings the church of St. Cuthbert's has been resorted and rebuilt on a number of occasions, reasons including damage caused by a succession of sieges of Edinburgh Castle prior to the later 17th century, with the interior of the church latterly undergoing a restoration in 1990. The Kirk Session of St. Cuthbert's sits within the Presbytery of Edinburgh. |