Tron Kirk

When walking along the Royal Mile, you’ll easily spot the Tron Kirk, with its striking clock tower, right in the middle of this long street. It is one of the most characteristic buildings in Edinburgh. Our free Old Town walking tour also covers this stretch of the Royal Mile.

A church turned into a market

The Tron Kirk (kirk is the Scots word for church) is one of the best-known churches in Edinburgh, thanks to its location right on the Royal Mile. It is a Category A listed building and part of Edinburgh’s UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Despite its name, it is no longer a church: the Church of Scotland stopped using it for worship in 1952. Today it is a historic building with new cultural and commercial uses.

Practical information

Opening hours

Daily

10am–6pm

No church services are held.

Entry

Free.

Inside you’ll find the Tron Kirk Market, a market of Scottish artists and designers run by the Scottish Design Exchange, with art, gifts and crafts.

The programme may change, but the market is its usual use today. Check what’s on if you are looking for a special event. During the Festival Fringe in August it has also hosted performances, and at Hogmanay the Tron was traditionally the place to gather at midnight, before the celebrations moved to Princes Street.

The many lives of the Tron Kirk

The Tron Kirk was built in the first half of the 17th century and has changed enormously since then. If you had visited Edinburgh centuries ago, it would have been almost unrecognisable.

First, its two side aisles were demolished in 1785 to make way for the construction of South Bridge and the section of Blair Street linking the Royal Mile with Hunter Square.

A few years later, a new tower was needed, after the original was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1824, which burned down much of the Old Town.

The new tower followed a completely different design: much taller and built entirely of stone, so it could never burn again.

Saved from demolition

After the Church of Scotland closed it in 1952, there were several plans to demolish the Tron Kirk to make room for traffic at the junction of South Bridge and North Bridge with the Royal Mile.

Fortunately, they came to nothing, and today the Tron Kirk has been restored and enjoys the highest level of protection, in an Old Town already specially protected since it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.