Duddingston Kirk & the Sheep Heid Inn
Why is it significant?
Climb the few steps to the gate of Duddingston Kirk and look for two curious objects. One is an iron collar on a chain, fixed to the wall: the jougs, in which wrongdoers were once locked by the neck for public shame.
Key Facts
| Place | Duddingston Kirk & the Sheep Heid Inn |
|---|---|
| Address | Duddingston Kirk, Old Church Lane, Edinburgh EH15 3PX, UK |
| Geo Coordinates | 55.94140, -3.14890 |
| Part of Walk | Climbing a Volcano: Arthur's Seat & Holyrood Park, Edinburgh |
| Generated | Generated |
Climb the few steps to the gate of Duddingston Kirk and look for two curious objects. One is an iron collar on a chain, fixed to the wall: the jougs, in which wrongdoers were once locked by the neck for public shame. The other is a block of stone with steps, the loupin-on stane, which helped riders climb onto their horses. Between punishment and practicality, here is the old Scottish parish in a nutshell.
The church is one of the oldest in Edinburgh still in use, begun in the twelfth century, and on its south side you can still find a round-arched Norman doorway with carved stones. By the gate stands a small tower built in the 1820s for a grim purpose: to guard the graves from body snatchers, who dug up fresh corpses and sold them to the anatomy schools of the city.
In the early nineteenth century the minister here was John Thomson, who was also one of the finest landscape painters in Scotland. He painted in a little tower down by the loch, and the story goes that he named it Edinburgh, so that unwelcome callers could be told, quite truthfully, that the minister had gone to Edinburgh. Walter Scott was among his friends.
Just along the narrow street called The Causeway stands the Sheep Heid Inn. It claims to be one of the oldest pubs in Scotland, with roots reaching back to the fourteenth century, and it keeps an old skittle alley. Legend says King James the Sixth gave the inn a snuff box made from a ram's head, which gave it its name. And in September 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie's Highland army camped beside this village before marching out to win the Battle of Prestonpans.
Think about the day you have had. You started at a parliament that opened in 2004, climbed through a volcano 350 million years old, and stood where James Hutton realised that the earth has no vestige of a beginning. This is where the walk ends. Sit down somewhere warm and let your legs recover... the city centre is about half an hour's walk back through the park.