The Collegiate Church of St Mary, Dumbarton, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, was founded in about 1453 by Isabella

Isabella, Countess of Lennox

Isabella of Lennox was the ruler of Lennox, from 1437–1458, and last in the line of Mormaers or Native Scottish rulers. As the wife of Murdoch Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany , she was also Duchess of Albany , but in 1425 her family would be almost completely destroyed when her husband, father and two...

, Countess of Lennox

Lennox (district)

The district of Lennox , often known as "the Lennox", is a region of Scotland centred around the village of Lennoxtown in East Dunbartonshire, eight miles north of the centre of Glasgow. At various times in history, the district has had both a dukedom and earldom associated with it.- External...

 and Duchess of Albany

Duke of Albany

Duke of Albany is a peerage title that has occasionally been bestowed on the younger sons in the Scottish, and later the British, royal family, particularly in the Houses of Stuart and Hanover....

. During the medieval

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 period, collegiate churches

Collegiate church

In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons; a non-monastic, or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by a dean or provost...

 took on the responsibility of caring for the sick and elderly within their parishes. St Mary's met these needs in a hospital attached to the main church building, and a separate leper house

Leper colony

A leper colony, leprosarium, or lazar house is a place to quarantine leprous people.-History:Leper colonies or houses became widespread in the Middle Ages, particularly in Europe and India, and often run by monastic orders...

 located at a "safe" distance from the town centre. The church ceased to exist at some time during the Scottish Reformation

Scottish Reformation

The Scottish Reformation was Scotland's formal break with the Papacy in 1560, and the events surrounding this. It was part of the wider European Protestant Reformation; and in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the re-establishment of the church along Reformed lines, and politically in...

 of the mid-sixteenth century.

The site of the collegiate church is now occupied by Dumbarton Central railway station

Dumbarton Central railway station

Dumbarton Central railway station serves the town of Dumbarton in the West Dunbartonshire region of Scotland. This station is on the West Highland Line and the North Clyde Line, 25 km north west of .- Building :...

. All that remains of the once extensive building is one of the tower arches. The stone arch was removed in 1850 to a site in Church Street, Dumbarton, and moved again in 1907 to its present location in the grounds of the town's registry office, beside the railway station.