Located on the western flank ofSoutra Hill, 2 miles (3 km) southeast ofFala is the noted Soutra Aisle. It lies just to the northwest ofDun Law, with its wind farm, and just within theScottish Borders at its boundary withMidlothian. Soutra Aisle is all that remains of a grand hospital, monastery and church which occupied a location half-way betweenEdinburgh and the Borders Abbeys from its foundation byKing Malcolm IV in the 12th C. until the 17th C.
The House of the Holy Trinity atSoutra, as the mediaeval hospital was formally known, was run by Augustinian monks to assist the poor, travellers and pilgrims, the aged, sick and the infirm. Funding came from vast monastic estates which were augmented by benefactors grateful for their treatment in the hospital. It was undoubtedly the largest and best endowed hospital of mediaeval Scotland.
The decline ofSoutra came quickly during the 1460s. The Master of the hospital has caused a scandal by his bad behaviour and, as punishment, the Crown confiscated most of the estates, leaving the hospital impoverished.Soutra was reduced from international importance to only a local service almost overnight. The estates were given to support Trinity College Hospital inEdinburgh, which directly laid the foundations ofEdinburgh's future status as a key international centre for medical research and practice.
Archaeological excavations have given a unique insight into mainstream mediaeval medical practice, through the discovery of human remains and the residues of herbal treatments. However, only very limited evidence remains of the numerous buildings which would once have existed. Soutra Aisle is just a fragment of the church and it survives only because it became the burial place of the Pringles ofSoutra in 1686. Inside is ornately carved stone, much taken from buildings which would have been constructed by mediaeval masons.
