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Edinburgh ' Cistercian Convent'

Almshouse (Medieval), Chapel (Medieval), Hospital (15th Century)

Site Name Edinburgh ' Cistercian Convent'

Classification Almshouse (Medieval), Chapel (Medieval), Hospital (15th Century)

Alternative Name(s) St Mary's Wynd; Hospital Of St Mary

Canmore ID 52508

Site Number NT27SE 47

NGR NT 26182 73543

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/52508

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Edinburgh, City Of
  • Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District City Of Edinburgh
  • Former County Midlothian

Archaeology Notes

NT27SE 47 2617 7355.

Hospital and Chapel of St. Mary: (St Mary's Wynd) Earliest recorded hospital in Edinburgh. Founded in 1438. Re-roofed in 1508. Its chapel was restored for worship in the time of the Plague...(RCAHMS 1951).

St Mary's Wynd derived its name from a chapel dedicated to St Mary, situated at the NE end of the Cowgate, in connection with w hich there was a hospital for infirm persons.....(Mackay 1879).

On the west side of St Mary's Wynd stood a chapel and convent of cistertian nuns, and a hospital dedicated to St Mary, of which little further is known....(Stark 1820)

H Arnot 1788; J Stark 1820; M E C Walcot 1874; J Mackay 1879; RCAHMS 1951.

(NT 2617 7355) No trace remains today ; area built up.

Visited by OS (J D) 26 December 1953.

Siting confirmed (approximate)

Visited by OS 6 February 1954; Information from Map by de Wit, 1647.

This was not a nunnery, as has sometimes been assumed, but an almshouse for poor women.

I B Cowan and D E Easson 1976.

Activities

Publication Account (1951)

76. Hospital of St. Mary, St. Mary's Wynd.

This is the earliest recorded hospital in Edinburgh. It was founded by the magistrates in 1438 (1), and was re-roofed in 1508 (2). This may or may not have been the same establishment as that of the "sisters of Sanct Mary Wynd” mentioned in 1522 (3), of which a further record occurs in 1535 (4). The chapel belonging to the Hospital was resorted to for worship by the "clengers” (cleansers) in time of plague (5).

RCAHMS 1951

(1) Registrum Supplicationum (Vatican archives) vol. 348, f. xxvii, v (30th May, 1438); vol. 349, f. cxxx, v (2nd July, 1438). 2 B.R., 1403-1528, p. 117. (3) Reg. Cart. St. Egid., p. 215. (4) Ibid., p. 236. (5) B.R.,1403-1528, p. 77

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