St Mary's Cathedral is one of the finest Gothic Revival churches in Scotland. Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, the nave was consecrated in 1879, though the western towers were completed only in 1917. The cathedral remains in active use as the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Edinburgh.
Scott's design drew on the proportions of early Scottish Gothic abbeys. The nave ceiling, rising to around 18 metres, creates a sustained reverb particularly well suited to unaccompanied voices and held tones.
An impulse response was captured inside the cathedral as part of this project, preserving the acoustic character of one of Scotland's finest ecclesiastical interiors at a specific moment, a sonic portrait of a living building still in daily use.
