Publication Account

Date 1997

Event ID 1019114

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1019114

A leper house may have been founded by 1333, when Spitalhill is referred to as mons hospitalis, although this name may be derived from St Peter's Hospital which stood on the upper slopes of the hill. By 1363, there is firm documentation for 'the houses of the lepers' which was at the foot of the hill. Such a situation, outwith the town, to ensure isolation of the sick and avoid contamination of the healthy, was the normal practice of many medieval towns. Leper hospitals, however, housed those suffering not only from leprosy but also other skin diseases and, indeed, the sick in general. The leper house is referred to often as the 'the sick house' from 1512 onwards, although described as the hospital leprosum in 1526. This dual appellation has perhaps caused confusion and the belief in a sick house elsewhere, near Futty Port. The leper house(s) and sick house were identical. In 1574, the council was ordered to collect a rental due on land belonging to the hospital 'betwix New and Auld Aberdeen' and with this to have the leper house repaired and thatched. The house was still in use in 1610 when a leper woman was in residence. By 1661 it was in ruins, and its lands were sold to King's College in 1718.6

Information from ‘Historic Aberdeen: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1997).