Lady Yester's Kirk

Lady Yester's Kirk is a historic former church in the Old Town of Edinburgh, one of the ancient burgh churches of the Scottish capital, standing close to the University of Edinburgh on Infirmary Street. Founded in 1647 through the generosity of a noblewoman, Margaret, Lady Yester, it served the south-eastern part of the Old Town for nearly three centuries before its congregation united with Greyfriars Kirk in 1938. Though it is no longer a place of worship — the building is now used by the University of Edinburgh — Lady Yester's Kirk remains a fine and historic building, and a memorial to one of the notable benefactresses of seventeenth-century Edinburgh.

The church takes its name from Margaret, Lady Hay of Yester, a daughter of Mark Kerr, 1st Earl of Lothian, and the widow of James Hay, 7th Lord Hay of Yester; on her husband's death she took the style of Lady Yester. She was a generous patron of the church in Edinburgh at a time of great building activity. In 1635 the town council had resolved to erect two new churches — one that became the Tron Kirk and another at Castlehill — but when funds proved insufficient for both, the Castlehill project was abandoned and the money concentrated on completing the Tron. Lady Yester not only helped to fund the completion of the Tron Kirk but also gave money for a new church that would bear her own name, donating 10,000 merks for the building and a further 5,000 merks to maintain its minister.

The church was duly founded in 1647, although a parish and a minister were not formally allotted to it until 1655. Its early history was unsettled: it was again without a regular congregation between 1662 and 1691, during the turbulent religious politics of seventeenth-century Scotland. In 1764 a secession from the congregation led to the formation of Edinburgh's first Relief congregation, part of the wider movement of dissent within Scottish Presbyterianism. The church had a particularly close connection with the neighbouring University of Edinburgh, and remarkably, three of its ministers went on to serve as Principal of the university — a reflection of its standing in the intellectual life of the city.

The original church stood a little to the east of the present building and included the burial aisle of Lady Yester herself; an elaborate Renaissance plaque that once stood over her grave is now preserved in Greyfriars Kirk. The present church building was completed in 1805 to a Jacobean design by the architect William Sibbald, and it incorporated and imitated some features of the earlier church, preserving a link with the seventeenth-century foundation.

The Disruption of 1843, which split the Church of Scotland and created the Free Church, had little effect on Lady Yester's congregation. But the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought decline: the great improvement works that reshaped the Old Town, and the movement of population away from the crowded city centre, steadily depleted the congregation. In 1938 the congregation of Lady Yester's united with that of Greyfriars Kirk nearby, and the church building was sold to the University of Edinburgh, which continues to use it today as the headquarters of its Estates Department. Thus, like several of Edinburgh's old kirks, the building has found a new purpose in the service of the city's great university, while preserving its historic fabric.

The church stands on Infirmary Street in the Old Town of Edinburgh, in the heart of the university quarter. All around lie the great sights of the city: the historic buildings of the University of Edinburgh, including Old College; the Royal Mile and the Old Town with its closes and wynds; the National Museum of Scotland nearby; Greyfriars Kirk and its famous kirkyard, with the statue of Greyfriars Bobby; and the wider attractions of one of Europe's most beautiful capitals, all within easy walking distance.

From its foundation in 1647 through the generosity of Margaret, Lady Yester, through its close ties to the University of Edinburgh and the ministers who became the university's principals, the rebuilding of 1805 and the union of its congregation with Greyfriars in 1938, Lady Yester's Kirk gathers nearly three centuries of Edinburgh's religious history into one building. A Jacobean church in the heart of the Old Town, now serving the University of Edinburgh, it remains a memorial to a notable benefactress and a part of the rich ecclesiastical heritage of the Scottish capital.