It is a close question, and a favourite argument between Scotland’s two great cities. Glasgow traces its beginnings to Saint Mungo’s church around the year 543, while the great rock at the heart of Edinburgh was occupied far earlier still, back in prehistoric times. As documented towns both are very old indeed; as places where people have actually lived, Edinburgh’s castle rock has the longer story.

How old is Glasgow?

Glasgow’s story as a settlement begins in the sixth century, when Saint Mungo is said to have founded his church beside the Molendinar Burn around 543. From that small beginning grew a bishopric, then a medieval burgh clustered around its cathedral, and in 1451 one of the oldest universities in the English-speaking world, the University of Glasgow. You can read more on our page about the origins of Glasgow.

How old is Edinburgh?

Edinburgh’s beginnings reach back much further, but in a different way. The volcanic crag on which the castle stands has been occupied since at least the Bronze Age, and by early medieval times it was a stronghold known as Din Eidyn, remembered in one of the oldest surviving poems in Britain. As a defended site, then, people were living on Edinburgh’s rock long before Mungo came to the Clyde.

So which is older?

The honest answer is that it depends on what you count. If you mean continuous prehistoric settlement, Edinburgh’s castle rock wins comfortably. If you mean the founding of a town with a recorded origin, both cities have roots deep in the first millennium. Either way, both are genuinely ancient – and the rivalry between them is older than almost anything else in Scotland.

When was Glasgow founded?

By tradition Glasgow was founded around the year 543, when Saint Mungo built his church by the Molendinar Burn. The settlement grew steadily from the medieval period onwards.

When did Glasgow become a city?

Glasgow grew from a small bishop’s burgh in the twelfth century into one of Britain’s great cities, becoming a royal burgh in 1611 and, by the Victorian era, the second largest city in the British Empire.

Which is bigger, Glasgow or Edinburgh?

Glasgow is the larger of the two by population, and is Scotland’s biggest city. Edinburgh is the capital and seat of the Scottish Parliament.