Magdalen Chapel

It's Doors Open Day in Edinburgh so we planned our route carefully to include St Columba's By The Castle, Magdalen Chapel, Augustine United Church, Granton Castle Walled Garden and, briefly, Custom House in Leith.

I may add more photos at a later date but my blip is from Magdalen Chapel in the Cowgate, of the stained glass shields, which are the only pre-Reformation stained glass in Scotland still intact. The roundels represent (top right and reading anti-clockwise) the Arms of Mary of Guise, Queen Regent and consort of King James V and mother of Mary, Queen of Scots; the Lion Rampant, the Royal Arms of Scotland; the Arms of Michael Macquhane (=Macqueen), founder of the chapel; the Arms of Michael Macquhane impaled with those of his wife, Janet Rynd.

The chapel has a long and fascinating history, founded by Michael Macquhane who died in 1538, before work began but completed by his wife, who gave the patronage to the Edinburgh Hammermen, (i.e. those whose trade involved use of hammer, be it goldsmith or blacksmith and so on) whose insignia appear in various places within. 

After several changes of use the chapel in now the headquarters of the Scottish Reformation Society.