What to do and see in East Lothian, Scotland: The Best Sacred & Religious Sites

Reviewed By andrewhdk - Falkirk, United Kingdom

My wife and I were holidaying in Dunbar to attend the Lammermuir Festival and enjoy sea walks, historic sites and local restaurants. The final two concerts we attended were both at St Mary’s, in the evening and then the late evening. It is the longest church in Scotland (63 metres/206 feet from east to west), just longer than St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. Its size is less surprising once you learn that in the High Middle Ages Haddington was the fourth largest town in Scotland, and of strategic importance. ACOUSTICS AND AMBIENCE The building originally dates from 1380, when it was founded as a collegiate church (with students and choristers). Completed in 1386, the church was extensively damaged during Henry VIII’s ‘Rough Wooing’, and has received much building and rebuilding up to the present day. The predominant architectural style is early Gothic. All the more surprising, then, that it has one of the finest acoustics of any building in Scotland, concert hall or otherwise. Both concerts were absolutely astounding. Clarinettist/composer Mark Simpson led the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Winds in a marvellous performance of Mozart’s great Bb serenade (‘Gran Partita’), in which the note-perfect, richly textured and thrilling playing was made to sound almost as tangible as the great columns of the church’s nave. The later concert, a performance of Stockhausen’s ‘Freude’ (‘Joy’) for two harpists, was complex and ethereal, yet every note and musical gesture, as well as the harpists’ chanting, was perfectly crisp and clear. We also noticed, in the late evening, how warm the building remained, and how comfortable the chairs are. HISTORY During the intervals we could take in more of the building itself. Much of St Mary's was only restored to its present state between 1971 and 1973. For most of St Mary's life the parish worshipped in the nave of the church, all that could be used after Henry’s occupying English army left in 1548. In 1561 John Knox urged the town council to repair and roof the nave of the previously catholic church, and a wall was built to close off its east end. The tower, transepts and choir were left roofless and exposed to the elements for over 400 years. Remarkably, the vaulted ceiling of the choir, apparently constructed in the same way as that of the nave, was actually constructed with fibreglass using 1970s boat-building technology. The new hand-made clear windows also appear ‘old’, and the choir space has a wonderful atmosphere. The organ was only added in 1990, and a recently added and very beautiful set of glass doors beneath the organ pipes leads to toilets (including a disabled one) and offices. The whole building has wheelchair access. VISITING St Mary's is open to visitors at Easter weekend and on Sundays to Fridays from 1.30pm to 4pm and on Saturdays from 11am to 4pm from 1st May through the summer. There is a committed team of volunteer welcomers; we were told that some of them were also helping the Lammermuir Festival staff at the concerts. In 2017 St Mary's was awarded 3 stars by Visit Scotland. Leaflets about the church are available in a variety of languages. Even if you’re not ‘into’ churches, the scale, beauty, acoustics, story of renovation and warmth of welcome will probably strike you, as they did us. 5 stars.