Burgh Muir - Use During The Plague

Use During The Plague

In times of plague, of which there were several outbreaks in the 16th and 17th centuries, infected victims of "the pest" were sent to the muir as a primitive quarantine measure. Some records suggest that hopeless cases were sent to the chapel at Sciennes (see above), while suspected cases were lodged on the southern slope of the muir in temporary huts clustered round the Chapel of St. Roque, the patron saint of the plague-stricken, built on the Grange c.1503.

Horse or hand-drawn wooden carts conveyed the hapless victims out to the Burgh Muir between the hours of 9.p.m. and 5 a.m. These primitive ambulances were preceded by "Bailies of the Mure", voluntarily recruited men wearing black or grey tunics and St Andrew's Crosses. They carried long staffs used to touch infected materials and rang hand-bells to warn citizens of their dangerous charges. The carts halted at the Burgh or South Loch, now the Meadows. On its south bank were prepared large cauldrons of boiling water in which other Bailies of the Mure, known as "clengeris", carrying long staffs with metal hooks at the tips, attempted to disinfect the victims' clothes.

The Town Council laid down strict regulations to contain the plague. People suspected of infection, because they lived in proximity to others who had died, were taken with their household goods to be "clengit" (cleansed) on the muir. In October 1568, a shoemaker, John Forrest, was appointed as cleanser on the west part of the "Borrow Mure." Another shoemaker and a weaver were made Baillies of the Muir, among whose responsibilities was giving permission to those cleansed to return home. No-one was allowed to visit those suspected of infection on the muir except in the company of these officers. They were issued with similar gowns bearing a white St Andrew's cross on the back and front, and carried a stick with a white cloth on the end "quhairby thai may be knawin quhaireuer thay pas".

In 1585, during another plague outbreak, a "Greitt Fowle Luge" was built on the muir at a location named Purves's Acres. The quarantined "cleansed" were lodged to the west of this building, and newly suspected "foul" persons to the east. There were so many people on the muir that the council ordered that their beer should be brewed thinner. Cleansed persons allowed home were confined to their houses for 15 days. Stealing infected goods was a hanging offence, and a "foul" hangman was employed for the purpose of executing offenders on the muir. It is recorded that Smythie, the "fowle hangman", was chained to his own gibbet on 23 July 1585 for disobedience.

When land in the west muir area was feued in 1597, the council reserved a path at the east end leading to the Braid Burn for use during times of pestilence. Many of the afflicted must have died en route and been buried by the wayside, as evidenced by human remains later unearthed in private gardens. The dead were buried in unmarked burial pits, some of which have left traces in the grounds of the present-day Astley Ainslie Hospital.