The Stones Project

What stands today as the Trinity Apse, in Edinburgh's Chalmers Close, is a small remnant of what was once a much larger building, the magnificent Trinity Collegiate Church. Originally constructed on Leith Wynd in the 1460s, it was demolished in 1848 to make way for what is now Platform 2 of Waverley Station. It was partially rebuilt in 1872, by which time only a third of the original stones remained. The rest had been scattered all over Edinburgh - ending up in gardens and parks from Morningside to Liberton and beyond.

This project seeks to track down those ‘lost’ stones, compile a survey and produce an image gallery. Towards the end of the project, we will hold a public exhibition of our findings, ideally combined with a Trinity Apse Open-Day. New findings will feed into the wider Trinity Network project and be available to the general public on-line.

Although the Trinity Apse is now sadly hidden away on Chalmers Close, it is still of huge interest to various heritage bodies and interest groups, as well as locals and visitors. It is hoped that this project will make a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Trinity Collegiate Church and stimulate further engagement, interest and discussion of one of Edinburgh's oldest medieval buildings.

Reviving the Trinity Stones is the project of Jill Harrison, Lecturer and Honorary Research Associate with the Open University's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Jill is a social art historian, fascinated bythe ‘who’ and the ‘why’. She has recently stepped back from lecturing to focus on research projects but continues to give talks to interest groups and life-long learners.

Jill's interest is in people, and she follows Michael Baxandall’s wonderful concept of ‘the period eye’, putting yourself in the place of the original viewer to really understand why a work was created, and how it draws on politics, economics, status, money, and often just plain personal ambition. Taking students on gallery visits in Edinburgh introduced her to the Trinity Altarpiece and she moved her allegiance from early Italian art to the rich cultural relations between Scotland and Flanders and is now fully immersed in the vibrant fifteenth century world of merchants, money (always follow the money) and the making of great art and architecture and things.

She loves working with fellow explorers and has founded 2 research networks, the Trinity Network which looks at all thing related to the Trinity - and the Adornes Network, which delves into the life and legacy of a remarkable man, Anselm Adornes, who has important links to Scotland and Bruges - and a very special connection to Edinburgh and the Trinity Altarpiece. The Reviving the Trinity Stones project is a branch of the work of the Trinity Network, and it is becoming increasingly exciting as new stones are found and more people become involved.

Founded in 1908, the Old Edinburgh Club (OEC) is the city’s history society, concerned with all aspects of the capital’s history and development. For more than one hundred years the OEC have encouraged interest in Edinburgh's past through lectures, visits and projects. Following a generous bequest, they launched the Jean Guild Grants in 2023 to help fulfil their mission of promoting research and interest in the history of Edinburgh and do this in new and imaginative ways.

The OEC is delighted to be supporting the two-year Reviving the Trinity Stones Project with Jean Guild Grant funding and you can find regular updates on the projects progress on the OEC website and social media.

Reviving the Trinity Stones project is part of the Trinity Network, a wider collaborative, interdisciplinary project founded by Jill in 2018. This wider project aims to revive the reputation of the Trinity Collegiate Church, once the most sophisticated and beautiful example of Gothic architecture in Scotland and the focus of great civic pride in Edinburgh.

What remains of this once magnificent building was rebuilt as the Trinity Apse, hidden away in Chalmer's Close, off the High Street. Through research and events, the Trinity Network want to secure the future of this unique building in a way that is appropriate to its cultural and historical significance. It deserves better.

The Trinity Network will also be re-examining two important elements of the Trinity Collegiate Church, the Trinity Altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes and the Trinity Hospital in their forthcoming book, Reviving the Trinity: Networks and Materialities in Scotland and Europe, 1400 -1600, which Jill is co-editing and contributing to. The book shows how this royal foundation can be seen as an emblem of 15th century Scotland’s inventive and ambitious cultural milieu, and its active, outward looking engagement with Europe and beyond.