Where is High Church?

[bldole541]

I found my ancestors on an 1851 census record in Scotland. The parish is listed as "High Church."  Along the top of the record it also says "Within the limits of the Royal Burgh - Edinburgh" and "Town of Edinburgh."

[jaybelnz]

Hi Bidole - I think you might be looking for St Giles!  Even has a map on the link below!

http://www.stgilescathedral.org.uk

[bldole541]

Hello jaybelnz,

I'm new to rootschat and I thought I was replying to the original poster. He/she asked the question regarding High Church.  I was just saying that my ancestors lived in that area in 1851. Thank you for your response though.  My 2nd great grandparents were married at St. Cuthberts 

[Forfarian]

Hello jaybelnz,

I'm new to rootschat and I thought I was replying to the original poster. He/she asked the question regarding High Church.  I was just saying that my ancestors lived in that area in 1851. Thank you for your response though.  My 2nd great grandparents were married at St. Cuthberts 

Lots of potential for confusion. See my previous reply on Page 1 of this thread.

There was a registration district in Glasgow named 'High Church'.

The pre-Reformation St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh is often referred to as the 'High Kirk' because there are no bishops in the Church of Scotland post-Reformation so it is not technically a cathedral now.

So the 'High Church' where your ancestors were in 1851 is not the same as the one the original poster asked about.

[Skoosh]

Glasgow Cathedral is the High Church & unlike St Giles is a real cathedral! 

Skoosh.

[Forfarian]

Glasgow Cathedral is the High Church & unlike St Giles is a real cathedral! 

How do you make that out? It is Church of Scotland and therefore it is not the seat of a bishop. Same applies to Brechin Cathedral, St Magnus Cathedral, Dunblane Cathedral, St Machar Cathedral, Dunkeld Cathedral and probably others - they were all the seats of bishops before the Reformation, all taken over by the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland and therefore all no longer have bishops. A building can't be a 'real' cathedral without a bishop. Glasgow Cathedral (aka St Mungo's or St Kentigern's) is in exactly the same situation as St Giles and the rest of them - a pre-Reformation building which was the seat of a (Roman Catholic) bishop, and is now used by the Church of Scotland.

There is a post-Reformation Roman Catholic cathedral in Glasgow, and there is a post-Reformation Roman Catholic cathedral in Edinburgh, and there are also Episcopal cathedrals in both cities. All of those are 'real' cathedrals because they are the seats of bishops.

Glasgow Cathedral's unique claim to fame is that it, unlike St Giles, survived the Reformation undamaged.

[Skoosh]

Glasgow Cathedral was built as a cathedral & its Archbishop had jurisdiction over half of Scotland it is the most important religious building in the country, St Andrews being a ruin.  St Giles, however historic it might be, & unlike the other cathedrals you mention, was not built as a cathedral & never the seat of a Catholic bishop, Edinburgh being part of  Archdiocese of of St Andrews. 
Glasgow had Episcopalian Archbishops intermittently between the Reformation & the Revolution when they were abolished.  St Giles is gets the name of a cathedral as it too had Episcopalian prelates at that time.

Glasgow has four cathedrals & as the latest poll on Scots has only a quarter of them consider themselves at all religious, by your reckoning we shall have no cathedrals at all before very long, real or otherwise!

Skoosh.

[Forfarian]

Thank you for enlightening me further.

We do seem to have rather an oversupply of religious buildings, one way and another, in Scotland. With a population of only five million or so, no wonder so many churches have been demoted or unfrocked or disestablished.

[Skoosh]

Four I can think of in Glasgow are now concert venues & great acoustics too!

Skoosh.