St Giles' Cathedral has watched over Edinburgh's Royal Mile for nearly 900 years, which is long enough to accumulate a remarkable amount of drama. Named after an Athenian of noble birth whose elbow bone was once venerated here by medieval pilgrims, it was the only church in the burgh for centuries, hence its scale and its commanding position in the middle of the high street.

It survived two English invasions in the 14th century, only to have its treasured Norman sections demolished by eighteenth-century bureaucrats too tight to pay for repairs. In 1637, a vegetable seller named Jenny Geddes reportedly hurled her stool at the bishop for daring to introduce the English prayer book, sparking a riot that reverberated across Scotland.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours use the cathedral to trace the collision of religion and power that defined Edinburgh: John Knox preaching the Reformation from this pulpit, Mary Queen of Scots resisting him from Holyrood, and a city still shaped by that centuries-old argument.