Castle Garth, Presbyterian Meeting House

In around 1705 a Presbyterian meeting house, also known as the Scottish Relief, was founded on part of the waste midden known as "The Mount" (HER 6544). The chapel almost certainly owed its location to the presence of Scottish "chapmen" and other religious minorities who were becoming numerous in the Garth. The chapel could seat 800 worshippers. Burials took place in the building and perhaps in the attached Garth. As late as 1842 a tomb stone could be seen in the chapel floor to Margaret, daughter of Sir James Hall of Dunglass, Bart, who died at Newcastle in 1721. By the mid 18th century there were other associated buildings including a schoolhouse and a range of tenements owned by the Protestant Dissenter's meeting house between 1705 and 1746.