On a recent visit to Inverness I passed this old building. The seventeenth century is one of my happy places, though to be fair, most of the seventeenth century wasn't the happiest of times in Scotland, or England.
It was the century that gave us the King James Bible, Shakespeare, Donne, Herbert, the growth and turbulence of dissenting and non-conformist Christians. However, it also visited on these various nations and islands much that was regrettable.
The legacy of damage, mistrust, and historic grievance has never finally dissipated. Few passions are more powerful than those generated by religious convictions; and few grievances are more carefully nursed than those persecuted for freedom of belief and claimed independence of thought in religious and political affiliations.
This building itself dates from 1668, and has a happier history. It began life as Dunbar's Hospital, built in 1668 as an almshouse and hospital by Provost Alexander Dunbar. One online source suggests it may have been constructed from the stone of Oliver Cromwell's dismantled citadel.1 In the 360 years since it was built it has been a place of public service in many different expressions. Hospital, almshouse, poor house, school, library and day care and social care centre.
In 2019 it opened as a cafe which provides free meals for homeless, vulnerable and otherwise struggling folk.2 I didn't have time to go in, but given the harvest of bad news reaped and relentlessly displayed across our phones, computers, and TVs, I found this enterprise a welcome relief. Here is a building 360 years on, still a safe place for vulnerable folk, a place of welcome for the lonely, food for the hungry, and of humanity in a world that can give every impression that we have forgotten the humanity of others, and are therefore in danger of losing our own capacity for humane and compassionate attitudes, benevolent and generous actions, and social responsibilities to others felt as obligation and not option.
1 https://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst8923.html
2 You can find more about 1668 Cafe here: https://www.highlandtsi.org.uk/cafe
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