Soutra Aisle, just within the Scottish Borders

Scottish Borders

The Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...

, not far from Fala

Fala, Midlothian

Fala, is a parish and hamlet in the south-eastern corner of Midlothian, Scotland, and about 15 miles from Edinburgh.-Location:The parish is about five miles long from east to west, and one mile broad from north to south, and contains about...

, is the remains of the House of the Holy Trinity, a church that was part of a complex comprising a hospital and a friary. It lies half a mile along the B6368 from its junction with the A68

A68 road

The A68 is a major road in the United Kingdom, running from Darlington in England to the A720 in Scotland.From Darlington, the road runs north, bypassing Bishop Auckland, and running through West Auckland, Toft Hill and Tow Law, past Consett and Corbridge...

.

Medieval hospital

The hospital was founded in 1164 by Malcolm "the Maiden"

Malcolm IV of Scotland

Malcolm IV , nicknamed Virgo, "the Maiden" , King of Scots, was the eldest son of Earl Henry and Ada de Warenne...

, when he granted it the lands of Brotherstanes up to and including the lands of Lyndean.

The complex at Soutra was built close to the Via Regia

Dere Street

Dere Street or Deere Street, was a Roman road between Eboracum and Veluniate, in what is now Scotland. It still exists in the form of the route of many major roads, including the A1 and A68 just north of Corbridge.Its name corresponds with the post Roman Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Deira, through...

, the main route from the North to the Borders Abbeys, the hospital was known as the House of the Holy Trinity, and was run by Augustinian Order

Augustinians

The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...

 and is believed to have been the largest hospital in mediæval Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. In an extensive Supplication to Rome dated October 7, 1444 the whole status of the foundation and the purpose of the hospital is discussed, where it is stated that it was "the founders intention to found there a hospital for the reception of the poor rather than a religious place". Its description of the site says: "the church is built at the top of a hill near a public way where there often fierce winds and frequent cold spells".

The Great Seal of Scotland

Great Seal of Scotland

The Great Seal of Scotland allows the monarch to authorise official documents without having to sign each document individually. Wax is melted in a metal mould or matrix and impressed into a wax figure that is attached by cord or ribbon to documents that the monarch wishes to make official...

 mentions Thomas Lauder

Thomas Lauder

Thomas Lauder was a 15th century Scottish churchman. A graduate of the University of Paris, he served the Scottish king at the Council of Basel in the 1430s...

 (later Bishop of Dunkeld

Dunkeld

Dunkeld is a small town in Strathtay, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It is about 15 miles north of Perth on the eastern side of the A9 road into the Scottish Highlands and on the opposite side of the Tay from the Victorian village of Birnam. Dunkeld and Birnam share a railway station, on the...

) as Master of the Hospital of Soutra on 26 February 1439 (no.226) and 20 May, 1444 (no.298). A Supplication to Rome in October 1444 states that he "had been Rector of the church or House of the Holy Trinity of Soltre, Diocese of Saint Andrews, for over seven years". He made one of the first grants (five shillings) towards the Foundation of the Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity in Edinburgh, in 1462.

In addition to looking after the sick, the friars took in travellers and pilgrims travelling to shrines in the Borders and further afield. Being on the main route from the English Border, it was at Soutra that many of the instigators and victims of the Wars of Scottish Independence

Wars of Scottish Independence

The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the independent Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries....

 would have passed in both directions, seeking refuge at this lonely stop on the edge of the Border hill country.

The remote nature of Soutra's position reflects mediæval society's suspicion and fear of sickness and pestilence, yet its vicinity to one of the few major routes in southern Scotland at that time shows that it was an essential institution for the succour of the sick.
Recent archaeological works have uncovered a wealth of information about the care that was available from the friars. Investigations into the ground thereat have revealed evidence of rare seeds of medicinal herbs such as Henbane

Henbane

Henbane , also known as stinking nightshade or black henbane, is a plant of the family Solanaceae that originated in Eurasia, though it is now globally distributed.-Toxicity and historical usage:...

, Hemlock

Conium

Conium is a genus of two species of highly poisonous perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the family Apiaceae, native to Europe and the Mediterranean region as Conium maculatum, and to southern Africa as Conium chaerophylloides....

, and the non-native Opium Poppy

Opium poppy

Opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, is the species of plant from which opium and poppy seeds are extracted. Opium is the source of many opiates, including morphine , thebaine, codeine, papaverine, and noscapine...

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Decline

Originally, the hospital was supported by the income from large monastic estates and contributions from wealthy patrons. Following the disgrace of Stephen Fleming, a Master of the Hospital, those estates entailed to the Hospital were confiscated by the Crown in the 1460s, and given to Trinity College Hospital in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, leaving the establishment without income. The Hospital survived the Reformation

Scottish Reformation

The Scottish Reformation was Scotland's formal break with the Papacy in 1560, and the events surrounding this. It was part of the wider European Protestant Reformation; and in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the re-establishment of the church along Reformed lines, and politically in...

 and struggled on until the seventeenth century, but succumbed eventually. Its stones quarried and now forming many of the walls and dykes in the surrounding area, and the complex returned to grazing land. The aisle itself survived by having been the burial place of the Pringles of Soutra, now of Torwoodlee, with a lintel above the entrance dating from 1688.