St Nicholas Hospital was a

medieval hospital The history of hospitals began in antiquity with hospitals in Greece, the Roman Empire and on the Indian subcontinent as well, starting with precursors in the Asclepeion, Asclepian temples in ancient Greece and then the Medicine in ancient Rome#Hos ...

St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

. It was located around what is today St Nicholas farmhouse at the Steading, between Albany Park and the East Sands Leisure Centre. Of unknown origin, the establishment served as a

hospice Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life b ...

for

leper Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria '' Mycobacterium leprae'' or '' Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve da ...

s outside the town between the beach at East Sands and the old coastal route. Parts of the hospital complex have been excavated in the 20th century, with rumours of a graveyard.

Leper house and poor house

The hospital lay on the lands of Kinkell, once belonging to the

Céli Dé The Culdees (; ) were members of ascetic Christian monastic and eremitical communities of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England in the Middle Ages. Appearing first in Ireland and then in Scotland, subsequently attached to cathedral or collegiate ...

of St Andrews.Taylor, ''Place-Names'', p. 529 The earliest notices of the

house appear to date to the late 12th century. Perhaps the earliest record, a grant of 2

oxgang An oxgang or bovate (; ; ; ) is an old land measurement formerly used in Scotland and England as early as the 16th century sometimes referred to as an oxgait. It averaged around 20 English acres, but was based on land fertility and cultivation, a ...

s in Powgavie (near

Inchture Inchture () is a village in Scotland between Dundee and Perth on the northern side of the Firth of Tay. It is approximately from Dundee city centre and from Perth. The village is bypassed by on the A90 trunk road and benefits from a flyover ...

Gowrie Gowrie () is a region in central Scotland and one of the original provinces of the Kingdom of Alba. It covered the eastern part of what became Perthshire. It was located to the immediate east of Atholl, and originally included the area aroun ...

) by Hugh Giffard, dated between 1178 and 1185.Taylor, ''Place-Names'', p. 528 The other is a grant by

Roger de Beaumont Roger de Beaumont (c. 1015 – 29 November 1094), feudal lord (French: ''seigneur'') of Beaumont-le-Roger and of Pont-Audemer in Normandy, was a powerful Norman nobleman and close advisor to William the Conqueror. Origins Roger was so ...

(died 1202),

bishop of St Andrews The Bishop of St. Andrews (, ) was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of St Andrews in the Catholic Church and then, from 14 August 1472, as Archbishop of St Andrews (), the Archdiocese of St Andrews. The name St Andrews is not the town or ...

, datable 1189 x 1195, granted the house the right to send a cart to the "muir of Crail" (King's Muir) to obtain heather. Both charters survive in 16th-century confirmations to the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

, both directly and indirectly from a confirmation of 1540 (''Registrum magni sigilli regum Scotorum'', vol. iii no. 2032). The same document reveals that St Nicholas also held the land of Peekie and a toft and croft at Lundin (between Leven and Largo). The house functioned as a home for lepers until at least March 1438. It is referred to for the last time as a leper house in a document dating to 14 March 1438, but is called a "poor house" in another document dating to 12 May.Cowan and Easson, ''Medieval Religious Houses'', p. 190 In 1529 it was taken over by the Dominicans, becoming attached to their local house, Blackfriars, St Andrews. It was still in use in 1583, when an endowment of victual was made for its poor. The hospital and its graveyard was located around the farm which became known as St Nicholas' farm (today a

bed and breakfast A bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B or BnB) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast. In addition, a B&B sometimes has the hosts living in the house. ''Bed and breakfast'' is also used to ...

with the dependent buildings converted into houses). The letter-book of James Haldenston,

prior of St Andrews The Prior of St Andrews was the head of the property and community of Augustinian canons of St Andrews Cathedral Priory, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. It was established by King David I in 1140 with canons from Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire. It ...

, reveals that the

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

was also called Liberton ("Leper toun"). The farmer at St Nicholas is said to have discovered 30 bodies in the vicinity of the farmhouse in the late 1950s.

Modern excavations around St Nicholas farmhouse

Between November 1986 and March 1987 excavation took place in the area, prior to the construction of the East Sands Leisure Centre and

car park A parking lot or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface. In most jurisdic ...

. It is thought that the excavation uncovered the western boundary-wall of the hospital with another building (possibly a bakery) built against the wall's east face. Medieval pottery was found, and the building appears to have been levelled in either the 14th or 15th century. More of the wall was uncovered in 1993, and in 1994 excavations took place along the Interceptor Sewer Pipeline (between Pipeland Cottage and St Nicholas farmhouse) after a bronze hoard and a few stone axes were found in the area. Two trenches at the farm revealed animal bones, pottery fragments, and an 18th or 19th century field drain. In February and March 1997 more excavations uncovered a wall of a large building with 16th-century green-glazed pottery, along with a smaller wall, perhaps coming from 16th- or 17th-century redevelopment. Further archaeological activity in 1999, in advance of the construction of a nursery south of the Leisure Centre and south-west of the 1987 area, unearthed a cobbled road and bones from four humans who lived 1530 x 1310 BC, 130 x 390 AD, 430 x 650 AD, and 530 x 660 AD.Hall, "St Nicholas Farm", p. 48

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Nicholas Hospital, St Andrews 12th-century establishments in Scotland History of Fife Leper hospitals Religion in Fife Christian organizations established in the 12th century St Andrews Scottish medieval hospitals and almshouses Defunct hospitals in Scotland