St Catherine's Place plaque, Sciennes

The plaque marks the site of Scotland's last pre-Reformation convent which lay to the south of the Burgh Loch (now the Meadows). The Dominican foundation was dedicated to St Catherine of Sienna, the French rendition, Scienne, giving this part of Edinburgh its name. The Papal Bull which founded it was granted by Pope Leo X in 1517, the same year that Martin Luther nailed his theses to the church door at Wittenberg. The impetus behind its founding appears to have been the number of titled women left widowed after the Battle of Flodden in 1513. Like many of the area's manor houses, it is believed to have been burned down during the Earl of Hertford's invasion ordered by Henry VIII in 1544. It was destroyed again in 1559 when the 'rascal multitude' (Knox) descended upon it after having first smashed down Blackfriars and Greyfriars. The nuns, who had been forewarned, escaped. Much of the stone was re-used in the building of the new Greyfriars Kirk on the town side of the loch. The remaining ruins were cleared in 1871. The plaque quotes some lines from Walter Scott's poem 'Marmion'. NT2573 : Greyfriars Kirkyard in winter

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