Edinburgh, Leith, St Nicholas' Chapel
Chapel (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Edinburgh, Leith, St Nicholas' Chapel
Classification Chapel (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 52019
Site Number NT27NE 9
NGR NT 2673 7660
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/52019
- Council Edinburgh, City Of
- Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District City Of Edinburgh
- Former County Midlothian
NT27NE 9 2673 7660
See also NT27NE 23.
(Name: NT 2673 7660) Site of Citadel (NR)
(17th Century) On Site of (NR)
St Nicholas's Chapel, Hospital and Grave Yard (NR)
OS 6" map, Edinburghshire, 1st ed., (1853)
The chapel of St Nicholas of which nothing remains, is frequently mentioned after 1488; it was no doubt built as a chapel-of-ease, the parish church of that time being the Abbey Church of Holyrood. It was deserted in 1560, and was ruinous by 1569. Its site became part of Monk's Citadel (see NT27NE 10) in 1650. No mention of a hospital associated with it has been found, and such a foundation must be regarded as very probably conjectural (Easson 1957).
RCAHMS 1951; D E Easson 1957.
Publication Account (1951)
248. Chapel of St. Nicholas, North Leith.
As the parish church of the early fishing-community of North Leith was the distant Abbey Church of Holyrood, or, before 1128, St. Cuthbert's Church below the Castle Rock, the Chapel of St. Nicholas, a tutelary saint of mariners, was no doubt built to serve as a chapel-of-ease. It was deserted in 1560, and by 1569 was ruinous. In the latter year the bailies of the Canongate gave the chapel, with its surrounding land, in perpetual feu to the people of North Leith, who were then in need of a church and the revenue drawn from its site continued to been joyed by the church of St. Ninian (No. 218 [NT27NE 829]) even after 1650, when the site became part of Monk's Citadel (No. 230 [NT27NE 10]).
RCAHMS 1951