 In times of plague, of which there were several outbreaks in the 16th and 17th centuries, infected victims of "the pest" were sent to the muir as a primitive quarantine measure.Some records suggest that hopeless cases were sent to the chapel at Sciennes (see above), while suspected cases were lodged on the southern slope of the muir in temporary huts clustered round the Chapel of St. Roque, the patron saint of the plague-stricken, built on the Grange c.1503.Horse or hand-drawn wooden carts conveyed the hapless victims out to the Burgh Muir between the hours of 9.p.m.