Edinburgh No. 5

Chalmers (1844) quotes: "There were and hospital, cemetery, and chapel, at St Leonar'd Hill, near Edinburgh. The font and holy water stone, as well as base of a stone cross close by it, were visible in 1753" [souce: "Annals, i, 96-7"]. Forrest (1865) quotes Maitland's History of 1753: "Here is still to be seen the font and holy water stone" [Maitland was probably Chalmers'source as well]. The 14 May 1894 report of the 'Proceedings of the Society' [http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_028/28_254_263.pdf] [accessed 1 November 2008] remarks on Maitland's witnessing of font and stoup, but states that "not a fragment of either is left". The Royal Commission on the Ancient Monuments of Scotland, Archaeology Notes NT27SE 74 2651 7290 [http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/canmore.newcandig_details_gis?inumlink=52540] [accessed 1 November 2008] informs: "The Hospital and Chapel of St Leonard formerly stood on the high ground now occupied by the James Clark Technical School. The arrangement of the buildings is unknown, but the hospital appears to have lain to the S[outh] of the chapel. Both chapel and hospital belonged to Holyrood Abbey, and it is probable that they took the place of an earlier hermitage (RCAHMS 1951). They were in existence before 1261, and restored and reconstituted in 1493. The chapel is again noted in 1528 and 1650, but how or when its function ended is not know. The chapel walls, then 4' high, were destroyed in 1854, when many skeletons were found both inside and outside the chapel precincts."