edinburgh64 Holyrood Abbey (aka Palace of Holyroodhouse) Since the 14th century, this palace has marked the end of the Royal Mile. It was regularly used by Queen Victoria when traveling to or from Balmoral and is still regularly used by the present Royal family. But before it was a royal residence, it was an abbey... Early History The foundation of Holyrood Abbey, by King David I, in 1128, was an act of personal piety. But was also a part of the Canmore Dynasty's campaign to bring the Scottish Church into conformity with the rest of European Christendom. It was established for a community of Augustinian Canons (priests following a monastic life based on the teachings of St Augustine) who were brought from Merton Priory in Surrey. The Abbey took its name from a relic believed to be a fragment of the Holy Cross (rood means cross). Excavations have shown that the first church built for the community was a small structure with a cross-shaped plan. The only part of this building now left above ground is the fine South doorway (not accessible to the public), originally leading from the church into the adjoining cloister around which the other buildings of the abbey were grouped. The Present Church The first church soon became inadequate for the needs of the increasingly prosperous abbey and a new one was built in stages to replace it. The new church as completed took on the form of a much larger cross-shaped structure: the head of the cross, at the East end, was a spacious aisled choir for the use of the canons; the arms were transepts with additional chapels; the shaft of the cross was the aisled nave. Although the whole plan of this church is known from excavations, only the nave has survived -- and that is a ruined state. The North aisle wall was erected first, because it could be built outside the church which then existed and its fine carvings suggest a date in the later years of the 12th century. The rest of the nave was built in a later fashion, around the first decades of the 13th century -- presumably after the nave of the old church had been cleared off the site. Apart from some strengthening, and several campaigns of repairs after English attacks, this part of the church continued to server the Abbey without major changes until the canons were ejected at the Reformation. The Reformation and After During the life of the Abbey part of the nave came to be used as a parish church by the Burgh of Canongate. It was consequently spared the worst of the Reformer's attacks in 1599, and was saved when the rest of the church was eventually cleared away in 1570. In 1633 Charles I made considerable alterations to make it a suitable setting for his Scottish Coronation, and even more extensive changes were made in 1687 for James VII, who provided the parish with a new church on a site in Canongate. James magnificently refitted it for Catholic worship -- he was the first of the Stuart monarchs since Mary to openly embrace Catholicism -- and also as a chapel for the Knights of the Order of the Thistle. This made the Abbey Church a focus for mob hatred in the rising of the following year, at which time the new fittings, and also the Royal Tomb, were ransacked. Even after it had been despoiled some half-hearted efforts were made to keep the nave in structural repair, and in 1758 the timber outer roof was replaced by stone flags above the vaulting. This proved to be a disastrous decision which resulted in the collapse of the vault and upper walls ten years later, leaving the nave in much the state which is now seen.