Lying close to the Water of Leith in the old village of Colinton is St. Cuthbert's Parish Church. Founded as the Church of Halis (Hailes) around 1095 by Ethelred, third son of Malcolm Canmore and Queen Margaret, but not dedicated until 1248. The church was possibly destroyed during the Earl of Hertford's invasion (1544) and certainly replaced around 1650, most-likely having been damaged by the army of Oliver Cromwell (1599 - 1654). It was rebuilt again in 1771 and altered in 1837 by architect David Bryce (1803-76), who built the tower. The church was rebuilt for the final time in 1908, by Sydney Mitchell, and the interior redesigned in a Neo-Byzantine style. New halls, function rooms and offices were built alongside the church in 1998.
Near the entrance to the church is an iron mort-safe, a rare survival of an early 19th C. device which was rented out to prevent grave-robbers stealing recently buried corpses for use in medical science.
Dr Lewis Balfour, maternal grand-father of author Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94), was minister here between 1823-60 and is buried in the kirkyard, which also contains several 17th and 18th Century memorials, including the mausoleum of philanthropist James Gillespie (1726-97). The earliest memorial has been placed in the church and dates from 1593. The kirkyard also contains the grave of Arts-and-Crafts artist Phoebe Traquair (1852 - 1936) and Colinton War Memorial designed by George Washington Browne (1853 - 1939). The minister between 1910 and 1930 was Rev. Thomas Marjoribanks, author of The Sevenfold I Am and father of diplomat Sir James Marjoribanks (1911 - 2003).