Edinburgh, 143 Grange Loan, Astley Ainslie Hospital

NT27SE 420 25 71

Many stones of ecclesiastical origin have been found in the grounds of the Astley Ainslie Hospital and in private gardens in the neighbourhood. A collection of these, some bearing initials and dates, was built into a specially constructed stone panel by Col. John Fraser, when Medical Superintendent, in the S boundary wall of his residence, South Bank. Also to be seen in the hospital grounds are a draw-well and a font or trough at the foot of the lawn of Morelands, a very old sunken well in what was the garden of Canaan Park, and just beyond the S boundary wall of South Bank, the remains of another old draw-well and those of an early building of some kind. To the W of the lean-to greenhouse in what was formerly the garden of Millbank villa, are, embedded in the ground, a row of four large cylindrical stones, bearing sculpted emblems of the Passion of Christ. Traditionally, these remains were believed to have been part of St Roque's Chapel (NT27SE 78), but modern opinion considers that they came from Trinity College Church (NT27SE 37). Another possibility is that they came from St Giles' (NT27SE 204).

RCAHMS 1951; C J Smith 1978.