St John the Evangelist
Portobello, City of Edinburgh
A beautiful Gothic church set in the heart of Edinburgh's seaside suburb of Portobello
In the late 19th century there was restoration work and this has continued to the present day, with stained glass windows being removed, renovated and replaced in recent years.
When entering the kirkyard there is an octagonal gatehouse at the entrance, which was as a deterrent to body snatchers in the early 19th century; the Edinburgh body snatchers of the day notoriously acquired cadavers and sold them to the city medical school.
The kirk has many associations with the literary and artistic world; the much revered 19th century minister John Thomson, a notable landscape painter, was a friend of Turner. Walter Scott was an elder at Duddingston and is reported to have worked on his novel Heart of Midlothian here.
The church stands next to Holyrood Park.
