Our final day in Edinburgh saw us return to the "Royal Mile", tomorrow we upsticks and move on to Berwick. Anne was keen to return to the fudge shop as Mike had taken the last two slices back with him to Chippenham (Well he did pay for it!) I wanted to take the opportunity to visit the home of the Reformer, John Knox. Knox was born near to Haddington about 1514, and became an ordained priest, but did not serve in a Parish, but as a notary, (similar to a solicitor) and was a tutor to the sons of country gentlemen. We know little of this early life but he attended St Andrews University who at the time were keen on a Anglo-Scottish union. He was caught up in the ecclesiastical and political events that involved the murder of Cardinal Beaton in 1546. He was taken prisoner by French forces the following year and exiled to England on his release in 1549.
While in exile, Knox was licensed to work in the Church of England where he rose in the ranks to as royal chaplain to Edward VI. He exerted a reforming influence on the text of the Book of Common Prayer. When Mary Tudor came to the throne he was forced into exile in Germany and Geneva and came under the influence of John Calvin.. He fell out with the Church of England because of his Calvinistic views and eventually returned to Scotland and led the Scottish Reformation.
John Knox only stayed in this house for a short time before his death in 1572
We also crossed the 4th Road Bridge to Dunfermline to visit the Abbey and Abbots House.
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| The 4th Road Bridge- showing the existing road and rail bridges and one of the posts for the new bridge, currently under construction |
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| Parish Church, next to the monastery ruins. |
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| Abbots House |
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| Ruins |
For over a thousand years a their has been a centre of Christian Worship on this site, the Abbey founded by King David in 1128AD was built on an earlier site dating back to 1058AD. The present church occupies the site of the ancient chancel and transepts of a large meddieval Benedictine abbey, which was sacked in 1560 during the Sottish Reformation and permitted to fall into disrepair. Ruins of the old abbey church still remain to this day. Saint Margaret of Scotland was buried here in 1093, and today the Abbey remains as one of Scotland's most important Christian sites.
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