Archaeology Notes

Event ID 714111

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/714111

NT27SE 68 2608 7393.

(Name: NT 2608 7393) Site of (NAT) Paul's Work (NR) Formerly (NAT) Hospital of Our Lady (NR) (1479)

OS 1/1056 plan, (1854)

The medieval hospital of St Paul stood on the E side of Leith Wynd (RCAHMS 1951). There are divergent accounts of its foundation. It is described in 1469/70 as a poor's hospital which Archibald Crawford, abbot of Holyrood, had newly erected with a chapel dedicated to St Paul. However, a Town Council minute attributes its foundation to Thomas Spens, bishop of Aberdeen, as a poor's hospital in 1479. It has a variety of designations, eg. "the hospital of St Mary of St Paul" (1488, 1490, 1514); "the hospital of the Blessed Virgin, called St Paul's" (1501). Again, it is described as St Paul's "Werk" (building), which is specifically identified with Our Lady Hospital, e.g. in 1518 "the place or hospital of the Virgin Mary and St Paul called St Paul's Werk", and other similar mentions till 1608.

The hospital was apparently rebuilt in 1619, and developed in the 17th century as a workhouse or house of correction; it is said to have continued thus till 1750. The building of 1619, however, survived; in it, in 1805, Ballantyne established his press and there the Waverly Novels were printed.

RCAHMS 1951; D E Easson 1957.

The problem of foundation, and of the alternative dedications, remains unresolved. It has been suggested that originally there may have been two hospitals both using a common chapel, the Lady chapel in St Paul's hospital mentioned in 1495.

I B Cowan 1964.

No trace, the site being occupied by the railway. No further information.

Visited by OS (J L D) 29 December 1953.