Despite Bricius 's earlier appeal , it was not until Andreas de Moravia 's episcopate that Pope Honorius III issued his bull on 10 April 1224 authorising his legates Gilbert de Moravia , Bishop of Caithness , Robert , Abbot of Kinloss and Henry , Dean of Ross to examine the suitability of transferring the cathedra to Elgin . The Bishop of Caithness and the Dean of Ross performed the translation ceremony on 19 July 1224 . On 10 July , Alexander II ( Alaxandair mac Uilliam ) had agreed to the transference in an edict that referred to his having given the land previously for this purpose . The land grant predated the Papal mandate and there is evidence that building had started in around 1215 . Construction of the cathedral was completed after 1242 . Chronicler John of Fordun recorded without explanation that in 1270 the cathedral church and the canons ' houses had burned down . The cathedral was rebuilt in a larger and grander style to form the greater part of the structure that is now visible , work that is supposed to have been completed by the outbreak of the Wars of Scottish Independence in 1296 . Although Edward I of England took an army to Elgin in 1296 and again in 1303 , the cathedral was left unscathed , as it was by his grandson Edward III during his assault on Moray in 1336 .