St John's Kirk, Perth

St John’s Kirk stands in the centre of Perth beside the former city hall, now Perth Museum. It occupies the site of a church founded in 1126 and rebuilt around 1448. The building is listed as Category A and is best known for the 1559 sermon by John Knox that launched the Scottish Reformation. Perth itself took its medieval name, St John’s Toun, from the church dedicated to John the Baptist. The kirk is framed by St John’s Place to the north and south, St John Street to the east and Flesher’s Vennel to the west. The church has witnessed royal worship and historic burials. King Alexander III’s heart was buried here in 1286, and Edward I heard mass during the First War of Scottish Independence. Charles I, Charles II and Prince Charles Edward Stuart all attended services. After Knox’s sermon the congregation destroyed nearby monasteries and divided the kirk into three separate churches. Major restorations by James Gillespie Graham and Sir Robert Lorimer returned the interior to a single space. Inside, the oldest part is the choir from 1448, and the tower’s upper room once served as a prison. Craft guilds maintained altars before the Reformation, and fines in wax were paid for breaking their rules. Pre-Reformation features include holy water stoups, a piscina and medieval mason’s marks. The carillon contains 63 bells, 35 of which form an active carillon installed in 1935. The largest bell, cast in 1506, weighs 1429 kg and is one of the finest pre-Reformation bells in existence.