In the 6th century Saint Mungo is said to have brought the body of a holy man, Fergus, for burial at a site named Cathures (which came to be known as Glasgow).

Saint Ninian is reputed to have dedicated the burial ground there on the western bank of the Molendinar Burn in the 5th century (the cathedral's Blacader Aisle may mark this site).

Constructed over St Mungo's burial place – a sacred location which may explain the otherwise unusual hillside site – the cathedral rose slowly, not without interruption and recasting, over a period of some 150 years.

The west front of the 1136 cathedral lay at the third pier of the existing nave and its east end included the area of St Mungo's tomb.

In 1175 Pope Alexander III recognised Glasgow as 'a special daughter' of Rome, freeing the diocese from the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of York.

Between 1207 and 1232, Bishop Walter Capellanus embarked upon a building programme which saw the completion of the choir and the Lower Church, and provided the basis for the layout of the transepts and nave as eventually built.

From 1233 to 1258, Walter's successor, Bishop William de Bondington continued the rebuilding, which included a new, longer, eastern arm to provide a shrine to St Mungo at the main level, and adding three projections (the chapter house, the sacristy/treasury, and what later became the Blacader Aisle).

Edward I of England visited the cathedral in August 1301 during the First War of Scottish Independence, making offerings over four days at the high altar and the tomb of Saint Mungo.

Wishart granted Bruce absolution and urged the clergy throughout the land to rally to him, before accompanying Robert to Scone where he was crowned as Robert I. Wishart used timber which had given to him by the English to repair the bell tower of Glasgow Cathedral to make siege engines, and laid siege to the English-held Kirkintilloch Castle, before crossing into Fife where he took charge of the assault on Cupar Castle.

Turnbull prompted James II (who was a canon of the cathedral) to write to Pope Nicholas V to request the establishment of a university in Glasgow.

Much was cleared away in the aftermath of the Scottish Reformation in 1560, and the only upstanding structure surviving today is the late 15th-century Provand's Lordship, on the west side of Castle Street.

James IV (who was a canon of the cathedral) ratified the treaty of Perpetual Peace with England at the high altar on 10 December 1502.

[9] The Scottish Reformation saw Archbishop James Beaton flee to France, taking the diocesan records with him, and Glasgow Cathedral was 'cleansed' of its Catholic furnishings such as altars and sculpture, and the roof was apparently stripped of lead.

The fabric of the cathedral suffered from vandalism and plunder, and by 1574 it was in sufficiently bad condition to attract the attention of the Glasgow town council: "the greit dekaye and ruyne that the hie kirk of Glasgow is cum to, throuch taking awaye of the leid, sciait and wther grayth thairof in this trublus tyme bygane sua that sick arte greit monument will alluterlie fall doun and dekey without it be remidit".

On 22 April 1581 James VI granted the income from a number of lands to Glasgow town for the cathedral's upkeep.

In July 1584 the Reverend Wemyss was pulled from the pulpit of the cathedral by members of the town council and other supporters of episcopalianism, to make way for Robert Montgomery, who had been appointed as "tulchan" Archbishop of Glasgow by the Duke of Lennox.

The included Alexander Spiers of Elderslie, Sir James Stirling of Keir and Cecilia Douglas, all of whom owned slaves in the West Indies.

A lack of funds prevented their 'balanced' replacements from being built, and the present nave aisles were formed instead, under the direction of Edward Blore.

In 1971 a memorial service was held in Glasgow Cathedral following the Ibrox Stadium disaster which claimed the lives of 66 football supporters.