Soutra Aisle

I stopped off here en route home after meeting JP for lunch at Carfraemill Hotel just off the A68. I was actually breaching the current rules as I'm not supposed to go outside the Lothians, but that was only advisory and as Nicola had said that no-one needed to change their half term plans, I decided that was what this was - it had certainly been planned before the current rules came into force. And Carfraemill isn't that far into the Borders.

This building was the family vault of the Pringle family but is on the site of the former Soutra Hospice, an internationally famous medieval hospital which also provided shelter to travellers, run by Augustine friars. There is a fantastic view as it's located on Soutra Hill. I'm not sure why it was built in such an exposed location, apart from the fact that it's on one of the main routes between Edinburgh and England. There is archeological evidence of some of the medicines used in the hospital, including a mixture of hemlock, black henbane and opium which was used as an anaesthetic for operations such as amputations. There's more about the hospital on Wikipedia here.

To each side of the building you should be able to make out wind turbines which are part of a large wind farm on Soutra Hill. I quite liked the fact that the medieval building dwarfs the wind turbines (in this photo, anyway).