Sciennes

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Sciennes (pronounced sheens) is an area of Edinburgh, Scotland, just outside the city centre to the south of the Meadows, with Newington to the east. Sciennes shares a Community Council with Marchmont, to the west.

Since it is near to many different departments of the University of Edinburgh, Sciennes has a large student population, some living in modern university-owned buildings. Most of the housing is Victorian tenements or 19th century stone 'villas' in roads which merge into the neighbouring area of the Grange, extending southward.

Sciennes was one of a number of areas, originally remote from the City, sited on the Burgh Muir. This area was known for its attraction for the "vagabonds, vagrants and outlaws" which found shelter under its large trees, far from the authorities.^{[citation needed]}

Concern for the spiritual welfare of these people led to the establishment in 1511-12 of a chapel to St John the Baptist by Sir John Craufurd, the canon of St Giles. This chapel only served its purpose for four years, however, as, following Scotland's defeat at the battle of Flodden, a number of widows requested, and were granted, a Papal Bull to establish the Dominican convent of Catherine of Sienna, which was built in 1517 but destroyed in the Reformation in 1559. The last remains of the convent can still be seen in the gardens of 16 St Catherine's Place, and are marked by a plaque.

The name Sciennes is derived from this convent's connection with Siena (Sienna).

The area also contains one of the few Jewish cemeteries in Scotland. Nearby is the remaining part of Sciennes Hill House, once the home of Adam Ferguson, who hosted a dinner there where Robert Burns and the young Walter Scott met for the one and only time in the winter of 1786-87. Conan Doyle's family lived in this part of Sciennes while he was a boy.

The Edinburgh Royal Hospital for Sick Children, known as the "Sick Kids", has been in Sciennes since 1895. It is a listed building with murals by Phoebe Traquair in its chapel. Sciennes Primary School is next to the hospital.