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Site of a chapel erected circa 1500. This chapel was a prominent feature on the top of Aberdeen's Castlehill between the 16th and the 18th centuries. It had a varied history and by turns has been a chapel, lighthouse, storeroom, mortuary chapel, hospital and gunpowder magazine. One interpretation states that St Ninian's was the chapel of Aberdeen's castle, which had not been destroyed along with the rest of the castle in August 1308. But whilst there was certainly a chapel in the castle Parson Gordon, writing in 1661, noted that the chapel was built in 1308 after the destruction of the castle, and was built by the townspeople in order to prevent the hill being re-fortified. Again this is incorrect as the chapel was built either in the very last years of the 15th century, or more likely in the first few years of the 16th century. On 2 May 1504, an ex Alderman of Aberdeen, one Robert Blinseile, endowed the 'newly' built chapel with his lands which lay on the west side of Shiprow. This would indicate that the chapel was built if not in 1504 then at least in the years immediately prior to that. From this document we can also see that Master Thomas Chalmer was the chaplain of the chapel in 1504. However the document does not reveal who built the chapel: it is not unusual that Robert was endowing despite not having built it. There are a number of reasons for this, firstly St Ninian was his family's patron saint, second Master Thomas, the chaplain, was his brother in law and thirdly his son was named Ninian. If Robert had been the founder of the chapel it would have been natural to expect to see some evidence of this in his endowment charter. It would seem clear from this that the chapel was privately built, the Town Council does not become involved in its history until some twenty years after its endowment. Unfortunately there is no clue given by the extant sources as to what kind of chapel it was intended to be when it was constructed. After the reformation it was used as a mortuary chapel but it could equally have been the case that it was a chantry chapel, in terms of the fashions of piety of the time. In 1524 an imperfect copy of Robert's endowment charter was engrossed in the Council Register, suggesting that at that point the Council may have taken control of the chapel. It was certainly the case on 5 November 1541 when the council ordered the Dean of Guild 'to pay skalitter and wryt for the mending of Sanct ninians chappell vpoun the castlehill'. The slates seem to have lasted for a space of twenty years: on 11 August 1565 George Middleton, the town's treasurer spent £12 Scots on 12 hundred slates. By 1565 the chapel had no doubt passed out of use in terms of its original function and indeed in the years immediately following the reformation the chapel was used as a storeroom. Another use for the chapel derived from its prominent location on Castlehill. On 22 April 1566 the Council ordered to 'mak prepair and wphald ane gryt bowat or lamp quhair ye same was befoir on the eist gawill of sanct Ninians chaepell.with thre gryt flammand lychtis to byrne continewally thairin the winter seassoune fra day lycht vnto day lycht and to begyn vpoune the first day of September and continew vnto the last day of merche.' This was to be paid for by a tax weighted on imports and exports, the collector of which was appointed to be John Tullydeff, and the keeper of the light Sir John Wrycht. The wording here clearly indicates that the chapel was already in use as a pharos by 1566, although it is not clear when this practice had started (there are references to lights like this being lit on Castlehill from 1479 onwards). In November 1593 it was rouped to Gilbert Black, elder, cooper. Blacl leased the chapel 'and the gryt loft of the samen...' The loft may have been part of the original building although it may also have been added during the use of the chapel as a pharos (lighthouse). Munro writing in 1889 suggested that between 1599 and 1600 the Song School of Aberdeen's parish church, St Nicholas, was housed in the chapel. In 1627, when attack by Spanish ship was feared (in retaliation for Sir Edward Cecil's abortive raid on Cadiz) the east gable of the chapel (along with the summit of Brimmond Hill) was selected as an appropriate place for a warning light. From 1635 the chapel became used as a mortuary chapel. The first body known to be laid there was that of Bishop Patrick Forbes. According to Munro the body was removed for burial on 9 April 1635 to the sound of shot from three pieces of artillery next to the chapel (and a further 9 later). In March 1649 the Town Council received parliamentary permission to remove the Commissary Court from its usual place of sitting in Old Aberdeen to New Aberdeen: they decided upon the chapel as the place for it to sit. On 9 May 1649 they ordered the Dean of Guild to 'repair the chappell.big partitioun wallis, barres with ane seat for the judge and clerkis, strich out lightis and ane entrie and to caus fyll and lay the floor with daillis also repair the chamber at the end of the chapel'. This is the first reference to the chamber at the end of the Chapel. On 17 October of that year a bell was bought for the chapel (ACA Council Register Volume LIII, p.239). In the 1650s during Cromwell's military union of Scotland and England the chapel was encased with a sconce and became part of his troops barracks (see HER NJ90NW0208). After the restoration the Commissary Court returned to Old Aberdeen and the chapel was once again used as a mortuary chapel. The council noted that many families from the countryside were using it as such along with Grey Friars church: the council charged £10 for this use. The next turn this fascinating structure took was to be used as an overspill prison for Aberdeen's Tolbooth. In the 1660s Aberdeen's Quakers (as Quakers were at that time) persecuted and imprisoned. In 1667 the courts ordered that as the Tolbooth was full excess Quaker prisoners were to be locked in St Ninian's chapel. One prisoner later recalled: 'Those, however, who were sent to the Chapel instead of having better accommodation were put into a small cold narrow place at the end of it, which had a great door opening to the Eastern Ocean without any fence. Here there was very little room more than to contain the beds, and only one window, so small, that the inmates could not see to eat their food, unless by candle light-thus hardly were the prisoners in the Chapel dealt with'. Following its stint as a prison, the Chapel was appropriated to use by the military. In August 1729 Richard Gordon Professor of Philosophy at Marischal College presented a petition to the Council on behalf of Colonel John Middleton of Seaton. It seems that Middleton in charge of half a troop of His Majesty's forces had converted the chapel to be a stables and barracks for them. As a full troop was now en route to Aberdeen Middleton sought and was granted permission from the Council to extend the chapel with the addition of two lean-tos, one on the north and one on the south of the building. In its final phase of life the chapel was used in part as a gun powder store and in part as a hospital. On 8 October 1741 the council ordered the creation of 'two vaulted places on the East end of the Chapell at the Castlehill, the one for holding the Powder belonging to the Town, and other for Powder belonging to the Military, and to put up a brick Partition upon the west side of the south door and to strick out a Chimney on the East end thereof, In order to be a hospital for sick Soldiers, and to put in some timber beds therein'. The chapel was demolished in the late 18th century (probably the 1790s) when the ground was sold to the Army to build a new barracks on the site
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Historic Environment Records (HER) 
Aberdeen City
HER -
NJ90NW0049 - ST NINIAN'S CHAPEL