Sciennes (pronounced , ) is a district of Edinburgh, Scotland, situated approximately south of the city centre. It is a mainly residential district, although it is also well-known as the site of the former Royal Hospital for Sick Children. Most of its housing stock consists of terraces of four-storey Victorian tenements. The district is popular with students, thanks to its proximity to the University of Edinburgh. Its early history is linked to the presence in the area of the 16th-century Convent of St Catherine of Scienna, from which the district derives its name. Location Sciennes is located approximately south of Princes Street in Edinburgh's city centre, and immediately south of The Meadows. The district is not an administrative unit or electoral ward and therefore has no formal boundaries, but it is generally considered to be the area that lies between Melville Drive to the north, Argyle Place to the west, Sciennes Road to the south, and Causewayside to the east, with an extension to the south east which takes in Sciennes Hill Place and Sciennes Gardens. Sciennes shares a community council with Marchmont and lies partly within the Marchmont, Meadows and Bruntsfield Conservation Area. Sciennes is also the name of a road which runs north to south in the eastern part of the district. History The recorded history of Sciennes starts in the early 16th century, with the establishment of two religious houses. In 1512, Sir John Crawfurd, canon of St Giles, erected a chapel dedicated to St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist on land that had been part of the ancient Burgh Muir, this being common ground that was given to Edinburgh by David I in the first half of the 12th century. The name is a corruption of Sienna in Italy, and comes from the Dominican Convent of St Catherine of Scienna. This was founded by a group of women, led by Lady Janet Seton, whose husbands and other relatives had been killed at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. The convent, which was completed in 1518, was built on land acquired from Sir John Crawfurd, and incorporated his chapel. It stood on the south side of the present Sciennes Road, roughly where St Catherine's Place now stands. It was the only Dominican Nunnery in Scotland. In 1567, the convent was destroyed and the community dispersed as a result of the Reformation. A plaque on