Said to have stood on a flat piece of Ground at the northeast end of the Street now Called Greenside Row, When the Hospital was in existence. the field in which it was Situated was Called the Hangmanâs Acre, this name arose in consequence of a Gallows being place at each Corner of the Hospital, on which the Keeper had the power without trial to hang any person whom he found escaping, Such was the fear in those days of the leprosy. According to Chalmers the monastery of Carmelite Friars was built in 1526, the hospital was established in 1591 and seemingly was only there for a short time, according to Canmore, there was friction with Holyrood Abbey which led to the âdowncasting of the house in which the friars livedâ
At the north end of Greenside Row was a pump which was formerly the âRood Well of Greensideâ belonging to the Friars. I canât find a great deal of info on it, Scotland's Places tells us that (the) Monastery of Carmelite Friars and Greenside Hospital founded by the Town Council in 1526 and dedicated to the Holy Cross; in 1591 converted into a leper hospital and seven lepers admitted into it in one day.â Another wee event of note is it is documented that in 1534 two locals called David Stratoun and Norman Gourley were burned there as heretics.
In a sheltered spot called Greenside, near the northern skirts of the Calton Hill, a small monastery of Carmelite Friars had had a brief existence before the Reformation. On its desolate site, a merchant-burgess of Edinburgh, John Robertson by name (whom we soon after find in the office of bailie), now erected a small house for the reception of lepers, led thereto, it is stated, by a sense of gratitude to God for a signal deliverance vouchsafed to him. The town-council concurred in his object, and undertook the oversight and direction of the establishment (Nov. 21 1591) . Five men afflicted with leprosy,and two women, the wives of two of these men, but not themselves lepers, were admitted, each leper being allowed four shillings Scots money â equal to 4d. sterling â weekly, and also having a privilege of begging under certain restrictions. They were on no account to go about for alms, or to stir from the house at all, or to admit any visitor, under penalty of death, and, to show how earnest was the spirit of this rule, a gibbet was erected at the gable of the hospital, ready for the instant execution of any transgressor. From sunset to sunrise, their door was to be kept fast locked, under the same penalty. Each patient was to take his turn of sitting at the door âwith ane clapper,â to attract the attention of people passing between Edinburgh and Leith, and to beg from them for the general benefit. The rest were meanwhile to stay within doors. The two wives, Isobel Barear and Jonet Gatt, were to be allowed to go to market to purchase vivres for the lepers and for themselves, but not to call anywhere else in the town, under penalty of death. A person was appointed to read prayers to the inmates each Sunday, and a weekly oversight was confided to the Masters of Trinity Hospital. The leper-house seems to have been extinct since the middle of the seventeenth century.
