St Nicholas Hospital, St Andrews
| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Established | 12th century (uncertain) |
| Disestablished | uncertain |
| Dedicated to | St Nicholas |
| Diocese | St Andrews |
| Grid reference | NO 5180 1595 |
St Nicholas Hospital was a medieval hospital in St Andrews, Fife. 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 for lepers 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.
The hospital lay on the lands of Kinkell, once belonging to the Céli Dé of St Andrews. The earliest notices of the leper house appear to date to the late 12th century. Perhaps the earliest record, a grant of 2 oxgangs in Powgavie (near Inchture in Gowrie) by Hugh Giffard, dated between 1178 and 1185. The other is a grant by Roger de Beaumont (died 1202), bishop of St Andrews, 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, 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. 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.
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