Lauderdale Aisle, Haddington

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free entry for everyone; donations to St Mary's Church welcome. No membership card is needed.

ParkingParking not known

The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.

Parking details

Historic Scotland names no parking. St Mary's Church has three parking spaces by its north door for Blue Badge holders; other visitors park in Haddington, which is 20 miles east of Edinburgh off the A1, and the church is signposted from the main road. No official car park or charge was found, so the status is recorded as unknown.

Driving pin: Historic Scotland's own pin on the church, by the River Tyne at the Nungate Bridge. Historic Scotland gives journey planners only.

About

The Lauderdale Aisle is part of St Mary's Church in Haddington, the great medieval church by the River Tyne known as the Lamp of Lothian. Built in the mid-1400s as the sacristy, where priests prepared for services, it became the burial place of the Maitlands of Lethington after the Reformation. John Maitland of Thirlestane, Lord Chancellor to James VI from 1586, died in 1595. His marble monument on the aisle wall, with near life-size effigies and heraldry, is among the best-preserved of the 1600s in Scotland and marks the move towards Baroque memorials. After the choir was restored in 1973, the aisle was rededicated in 1978 as a chapel of the Virgin, the Christ Child and the Three Kings, with Oberammergau carvings and an icon from Mount Athos. It can be seen only when St Mary's is open, most afternoons from May to September and at Easter, or at Sunday services, when volunteers point out hidden details.

Check today’s timesSee all times

Lauderdale Aisle, HaddingtonClosed to visitors for the winter; St Mary's Church opens 13:30 – 16:00most days from 1 May to 30 September and at Easter, and for Sunday services at 09:30 and 11:00

Opening times may change at short notice.

Historic Scotland: 'You can visit the Lauderdale Aisle whenever St Mary's Church is open.' The church, a working Church of Scotland parish church, welcomes visitors from 1.30pm to 4pm most days from 1 May to 30 September and at Easter, with volunteers on duty; it closed to visitors from 8 to 20 September 2026 for the Lammermuir Festival. Outside the season the aisle can be seen at Sunday services (9.30am and 11am) and events. The burial vault below the aisle is not open to visitors.

Wheelchair access is by the north door, where there are toilets and a doorbell to call for help. Group tours by arrangement with the church.

Photo: The marble and alabaster Maitland monument in the Lauderdale Aisle, with recumbent effigies beneath a pediment of painted coats of arms. Skinner doc, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lauderdale_Aisle,_St_Mary%27s_Haddington,_East_Lothian.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.