A small residential district of Edinburgh, lying between Newington and Marchmont, on the south side of the Meadows, some 1 mile (1.5 km) south of the city centre. It began as a remote district, behind the Borough Muir, which gave shelter to vagrants and outlaws. It took its name from the Convent of St. Catherine of Sienna, dedicated in 1517, which was located where St. Catherine's Place is today and fondly regarded in Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis by Sir David Lindsay (1486 - 1555).
Sciennes Hill House, part of which remains today, is best known as the location of the only meeting between poet Robert Burns (1759-96) and author Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832), who had both been invited to dinner by Adam Ferguson (1723 - 1816), whose home it then was. The Sciennes Distillery, which was taken over by Andrew Usher (1826-98) in 1859, is no longer extant.
The sizeable edifice of the former Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Sick Children, which lies on Sciennes Road, was completed in 1895 by architect George Washington Browne (1853 - 1939) and has been converted to domestic use. On Sciennes House Place is a tiny Jewish Cemetery, opened in 1816.