The Royal Mile's oldest surviving house, linked — if only loosely — to the reformer whose name it carries.
What happened here?
Dating from around 1470, John Knox House and the attached Moubray House are the oldest original medieval buildings still standing on the Royal Mile. The house wasn't built for Knox — it belonged to Mariota Arres and her husband James Mossman, a goldsmith to the Stewart monarchs.
Why does this matter to the Reformation story?
Tradition holds that Knox lived here for around 18 months toward the end of his life, and that connection is what saved the building from demolition and gave it its name — though the surviving historical evidence for him actually living here is thin. Today the house holds displays on the Reformation and on the clashes between Knox and Mary, Queen of Scots.
What happened next?
The house is now run as a museum, part of the Scottish Storytelling Centre.
What to look for while you're here
- The building's timber-fronted, stone-galleried medieval construction — genuinely 15th-century, whatever the truth about Knox's residence.
- Displays inside on the Knox-Mary confrontations, set within the period the building itself comes from.