History
The original building was commissioned as a sanctuary for tuberculosis patients [1] and opened as Nordrach on Dee Hospital [2] in 1900. [3]
When tuberculosis died down it served as a luxury hotel (when it became "Glen o' Dee"), but was taken over during the Second World War to serve as a billet for troops. [4] In 1955 it became a convalescent hospital. [5] It reprised its role in contagious diseases when a typhoid epidemic hit nearby Aberdeen in the 1960s, but its last use was as a residential home for the elderly before it closed in 1998. [4]
The original building was featured on the BBC's Restoration programme and, although local people campaigned to have it restored, it continued to sit empty and deteriorating. [6] The building was badly damaged by fire on 14 October 2016 with police treating the incident as wilful fire-raising. [4]
On 14 November 1989 it became a Category A listed building; on 25 November 2016 it was delisted. [7]
A small modern community hospital staffed by GPs now operates on the site. [8] A befriending service was established at the community hospital in 2013 matching older patients ready to be discharged, but lacking confidence to return home, with a volunteer befriender. The volunteers then visit the older patients regularly in hospital and at home after discharge, offering on-going emotional and practical support. Local GPs reported the service had improved the overall health and wellbeing of their patients and reduced the number of medically unnecessary GP visits. [9]
Robert Young Keers FRSE was Superintendent of the facility from around 1950 to 1957. [10]
The hospital was destroyed in October 2016 after it was wilfully set on fire by two 13 year old boys. [11]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
