Pictures of Restalrig Church and churchyard (now named St. Margaret's)
& St. Triduana's Chapel/Well, Leith
 
The present day Church keeps alive its links with medieval times, when the Friends of Restalrig present concerts of religious music to commemorate St Triduana's Day on 8th October in this [St. Triduana's] chapel.

 St Margaret's Parish Church web page

1999                                                                            1840
 
 

Exterior view of church and St. Triduana's chapel

 

Interior view of church
 
 
 

  The Logan window  "To the glory of God and in memory of the  Logans of Restalrig who served well God & the King of Scotland"  Gifted by Harry A. Logan and Marian Logan Wendell of Warren, Pennsylvania, USA in 1982.

 
 

 
Sign from outside St. Triduana's Chapel    Text: "In the 1480's James III had a hexagonal chapel built onto the parish church here at Restalrig, where a college of seven or eight priests could say masses for their king.  It was a remarkable building for its time "a sumptuous new work", so Pope Innocent VIII described it.  Today only the lower of two stories survives, but enough to confirm
that it was a most elaborate and original structure.  What little survives of the upper chapel shows that it was a high vaulted structure, apparently without a central supporting pillar.  It was lit by large tracerie windows.  Ceiling bosses and fragments of window tracery are on display in the lower chapel.  The alter was in the east angle.  It is not known to which saint it was dedicated.  The lower chapel, entered down a flight of steps, survives largely complete.  It is not unlike a chapter house with a rib-vault springing from a central pier.  The floor is below ground level and would normally be under water were it not for the electric pump.  For this reason it has been described as a well house.  In 1515 it held an alter dedicated to St. Triduana, an obscure Pictish saint.  At the Reformation in 1560, Restalrig Kirk, "a monument to idolatrie", was ordered to be "raysit and utterlei castin downe and destroyed".  Fortunately the order was only partially completed.  The lower chapel continued in use as a burial vault for the lairds of Restalrig.  In 1836 the 15th century church was restored by William Burn, and in 1906 Thomas Ross repaired the chapel and added the present roof."
 
 
 
Outside view of the lower chapel
History of: St Triduana's Well - St Margaret's Parish Church

 
Central pier in lower chapel


Ceiling bosses and fragments of window tracery
(Janet Kerr, Lady Restalrig's tombstone bolted to the wall)
 

                                                Lady Restalrig's (Jonet Ker) tombstone
Inscription: "(HERE LYETH) ANE HONORABLE LADY IONET KER/LADY RESTALRIE QVHA DEPAERTIT YIS L(YFE)/12 DAY OF (M)AII (ANNO 15)96"
This would be the second wife of the [accused, convicted, then acquitted] Gowrie Conspirator, Robert Logan, Seventh Laird of Restalrig [died 1606.]

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

  Far left: medieval grave marker
                                                                                             Left: medieval "table" monument
 

Medieval wall directly across from church; supposed boundry wall to the Deanery of the "College of Restalrig" established in 1487.
 
 

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