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Linlithgow, High Street, Town House Of The Knights Of St John
Town House (15th Century)
Site Name Linlithgow, High Street, Town House Of The Knights Of St John
Classification Town House (15th Century)
Alternative Name(s) The Mint; Old Mint; Old Tower; Templars' Tenements; The Cross; St Michael's Wynd
Canmore ID 49179
Site Number NT07NW 12
NGR NT 0019 7713
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/49179
- Council West Lothian
- Parish Linlithgow
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District West Lothian
- Former County West Lothian
The Mint, early 16th century (demolished)
Unusually elaborate town house of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem consisting of a street frontage and two courts behind a long and superbly elaborate hall and the tall tower to the south-east with an oriel window. The hall had a splendid open timber roof and an elaborately carved fireplace.
Taken from "West Lothian: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Stuart Eydmann, Richard Jaques and Charles McKean, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
NT07NW 12 0019 7713
(NT 0019 7713) Templars' Tenements (NR)
OS 25" map (1856).
NMRS REFERENCE
Demolished 1886 - S side of High Street near St Michael's Church.
(Undated) information in NMRS.
Three buildings on the S side of The Cross, which formerly belonged to the Knights Templars. Lord Torphichen still retains the superiority of them.
Name Book 1856.
The so-called 'Mint' or town-house of the Knights Hospitallers in Linlithgow was built in the late 15th or early 16th century (after the Knights Templar had been suppressed). It was demolished in the late 19th century. Its lay-out (see plans and illustrations) incorporated a two-storeyed hall wing extending along one side of an inner courtyard; adjoining the SE end of the hall block there was a self-contained, five storeyed tower-house. Little is now known of the purposes served by the other apartments, especially in the block fronting the street, where there may have been booths (or shops) and additional chambers.
Macgibbon and Ross (1887) note that the street front was largely rebuilt and modernised (measured drawings in NMRS).
G Stell 1977.
Site occupied by modern buildings.
Visited by OS (BS), 29 March 1974.
Publication Account (2000)
The town house of the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem was built in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century and was demolished in 1885 (see area 3). Whether remnants of this building could have survived the nineteenth century development for which it was pulled down is uncertain. It is possible that some deeply-cut foundations may have survived or that masonry was re-used in later building works. In fact, a fragment of the late medieval building is thought to have been incorporated into the building at the corner of St Michael's Wynd.
Information from ‘Historic Linlithgow: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (2000).
