The Collegiate Church of St Mary, Dumbarton,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, was founded in about 1453 by

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, Countess of Lennox and Duchess of Albany. During the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

period, collegiate churches took on the responsibility of caring for the sick and elderly within their parishes. St Mary's met these needs in a hospital attached to the main church building, and a separate

leper house A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. ''M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East Afri ...

located at a "safe" distance from the town centre. The church ceased to exist at some time during the

Scottish Reformation The Scottish Reformation was the process by which Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland broke with the Pope, Papacy and developed a predominantly Calvinist national Church of Scotland, Kirk (church), which was strongly Presbyterianism, Presbyterian in ...

of the mid-sixteenth century. The site of the collegiate church is now occupied by

Dumbarton Central railway station , symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = Dumbarton Central railway station, West Dunbartonshire - geograph.org.uk - 3277397.jpg , caption = View of Dumbarton Central station, looking east , ...

. All that remains of the once extensive building is one of the tower arches. The stone arch was removed in 1850 to a site in Church Street, Dumbarton, and moved again in 1907 to its present location in the grounds of the town's registry office, beside the railway station.

References

Health Care in Medieval Dumbarton
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110728154403/http://www.benderloch.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?=&p=1935 Ardchattan Parish : Barcaldine, Benderloch, N. Connel and Bonawe* ''The Buildings of Scotland: Stirling and Central Scotland'', by John Gifford and

Frank Arneil Walker Frank Arneil Walker OBE is a Scottish architectural academic and writer. He is emeritus professor of architecture of the University of Strathclyde. He writes regularly on architectural and urban history, is author of ''The South Clyde Estuar ...

, 2002. 15th-century church buildings in Scotland Christianity in medieval Scotland Churches in West Dunbartonshire Collegiate churches in Scotland Buildings and structures in Dumbarton Scottish medieval hospitals and almshouses Former churches in Scotland {{Scotland-church-stub

See also

References