Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016547
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016547
John Cowane was a wealthy merchant who, on his death in 1633, left a sum of 40.000 merks for the construction of an almshouse or hospital to house 'tuelf(twelve) decayed guidbroder, burgessis and induellors' of the burgh of Stirling. The building is still in public use, although no longer as an almshouse, and consequently it is not possible to view the interior.
The hospital is E-shaped on plan with a projecting belltower at the centre of the principal facade, an unusual form for Scotland at this period. Work was begun in May 1637 but not finally completed until 1648 when the statue of John Cowane was placed over the entrance. We know rather more about the construction of this building than most others of the period, as the building accounts still survive. It was designed by no less a person than the Master Mason to the Crown, John Mylne, and the work was quarried out under the supervision ofJames Rynd, a Stirling mason. Some of the stone was newly quarried and brought from Plean and Dunmore, a little to the east of the town, while other loads were robbed from the ruins of Cambuskenneth Abbey (see no. 53) on the opposite shore of the Forth.
Most of the original internal fittings were removed in 1852 when the building was converted for use as a guildhall, but parts of the garden remain with a small flagged terrace on the east leading to a bowling-green. The Hospital is not Stirling's only reminder ofJohn Cowane, as his house still survives in the town and its facade can be seen at the bottom ofSt Mary's Wynd.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Clyde Estuary and Central Region’, (1985).
