Holyrood Abbey (Abbey of the Holy Cross) was founded in 1128 by King David I and Scotland belonged to Augustinian monks. Abbey played an important role not only in religion but also in the political life of Scotland. Here meetings were held of the nobility and higher clergy, there were crowned and married Scottish kings. Kings often stopped at the abbey, located within walking distance from Edinburgh Castle, preferring to live here and not in the castle, and at the end of the XV century in the abbey were some royal apartments, and in the beginning of the XVI century, King James IV builds a palace, adjacent to the abbey - Holyrood House.

In the middle of the XVI century, British troops capture the abbey, destroyed it - the building lost its lead roof was removed the bell, looted valuables. Soon the Scottish Reformation, and the abbey was almost completely destroyed. In 1686 King James VII founded the Jesuit College at Holyrood, and the following year became a Catholic abbey. The church was rebuilt and in it there was a chapel ancient and noble Order of the Thistle, decorated with carved chairs for the number of Knights. However, in 1688 a crowd of rebels stormed the church destroying church and chapel and desecrating ancient royal burial. (Its chapel appeared at the Order of the Thistle only in 1911 in the Cathedral of St Giles in Edinburgh.)

Poor renovated roof collapsed during a hurricane in 1768, and since then, the abbey is in the same condition in which we can see it now - the picturesque ruins, impressive remains of its former greatness. During these 250 years we have repeatedly appeared projects of restoration and recovery of the abbey, but none of them have not been implemented.