Hospital of St John the Baptist, Arbroath

The Hospital of St John the Baptist, at Arbroath, Scotland, was founded in the early 14th century by the monastic community at Arbroath Abbey. The exact date for the foundation is uncertain, but it is first recorded in 1325 during the time that Bernard of Kilwinning (1324–c.1328) was Abbot of Arbroath. The Abbey itself was founded in 1178 by King William the Lion for a group of Tironensian Benedictine monks from Kelso Abbey. It was consecrated in 1197. It is possible that the hospital was used by travellers, as a chantry or possibly almshouse. The only visible remains of the medieval hospital are a left hand door arch which has been incorporated into the 19th-century Hospitalfield House. In the nineteenth century a chance location of about 120 skeletons in shallow graves near Hospitalfield House suggests the site of a medieval burial ground. Hospitalfield House is now an arts centre, and inspired the fictional location "Monkbarns", the home of Jonathan Oldbuck, title character of Sir Walter Scott’s novel, The Antiquary.