The Free congregation met at a building off Lothian Road before moving nearby to a permanent church at Cambridge Street in Tollcross.

Via Highland, Tolbooth, St John's union with Greyfriars Kirk in 1979, the latter congregation maintains a weekly Gaelic service.

St Columba's occupied a simple building in the Early English style by Patrick Wilson, completed in 1851.

The Gaelic congregation within the Church of Scotland was formally established with its own building at Chapel Wynd in the Old Town in 1769.

[1] At the Disruption of 1843, the vast majority of the congregation, including all its office-bearers, joined the Free Church.

[2] After the newly-formed Gaelic Free congregation was expelled from the Horse Wynd chapel in 1844, they worshipped for a year in the hall of the Royal High School before occupying a simple brick building between Lothian Road and Castle Terrace.

[4][5] The church's minister from 1849 to 1884 was Thomas McLauchlan, who founded a Sunday School and, in 1874, hosted evangelistic meetings by Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey.

[3][14] In 1910, the council announced a new concert venue – the Usher Hall – would occupy a site neighbouring St Columba's.

Although the petition was unsuccessful, the congregation gained an undertaking that no new buildings would be constructed between the church and the Usher Hall.

[18] Summarising the contrasting histories of Edinburgh two Gaelic congregations, J. Boog Thomson, session clerk of St Oran's, told The Scotsman at the time: We represent a minority in the Presbytery by blood and tradition, and many of us by language.

St Columba's are not only mainly representative of the Free Church, but were drawn and recruited from Ross and Cromarty and the fringe of Inverness.

St Oran's were recruited mainly from Argyll, with a large predominance of Campbells, Shaws, and Macdougals.

St Columba's congregation walked out in 1842, [sic] and since then there has been intermittent litigation as to the return of the funds and property.

[19][20] The united congregation adopted the name "Highland Church" and used the St Columba's buildings.

[22] By this period, Tollcross and the Old Town were – like most of central Edinburgh – experiencing population decline and, with it, a lessening demand for church accommodation.

The Highland Church's Cambridge Street building was sold in 1956 and converted into offices for the Edinburgh Festival Society.

[29] Ahead of the construction, Lord Breadalbane gifted 14,000 slates from Easdale and the women of the congregation raised funds for furnishings, including a clock.

[28] A renovation of 1893 included the addition of extra accommodation in the gallery, a hot water heating system, and new lighting.

[15][30] A bronze tablet dedicated to the church's former minister Malcolm MacLennan was erected in the vestibule after his death in 1931.