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Publication Account
Date 1951
Event ID 1096144
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1096144
215. Dominican Nunnery, Sciennes.
The Convent of the Sisters of the Order of Friars Preachers, the only Dominican nunnery in Scotland, was founded after Flodden by a group of kinswomen or widows of men who had fallen in the battle. Most of the money was contributed by the widow of the fifth Lord Seton. The buildings included the Chapel of St. John the Baptist (RCAHMS 1951 No. 214) and covered an area bounded by Sciennes* Road on the N., by Causewayside on the E. and by Grange Loan on the S., and extending W. of the short street now called St. Catherine's Place**. The Convent's career was uneventful until the eve of the Reformation, when its buildings were damaged but not destroyed by a mob. Parts of the ruins were made to serve as a plague-hospital in 1645 (1) and the enclosing wall, then standing 12 feet high, was pulled down about 1760 (2).
RCAHMS 1951
(1) B.R., 1642-1655, pp. 71 and 421. (2) Session Papers: Dick-Lauder v. Town of Edinburgh, 1764
*A corruption of ‘Siena’, the convent having been dedicated to St Catherine of Siena.
**A stone of the convent is preserved in the garden of Number 16.
