Birkwood Hospital
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Birkwood Hospital originally started life as Birkwood House, built in 1819 by the famous Scottish architect John Baird.
The house was home to the McKirdy family before it was sold in 1923 to the Lanark District Board of Control for £10,000.00 for conversion into an institution for juvenile mentally handicapped patients.
In 1926 a School was built on the grounds which now covered just over 83 acres, with additional buildings added in 1929 for low grade patients.
The Hospital was now known as the Birkwood Institution or the Birkwood Certified Institution.
Most of the patients residing at Birkwood where long stay patients, some of them ended up being there for nearly 50 years.
In 1948 the Hospital was taken over by the National Health Service and renamed Birkwood Hospital, the name stayed with the Hospital then for its duration up until it finally closed in October 2005 due to funding cuts by the NHS.
Since 2005 the site has been derelict but was bought by Eatonfield Developers in October 2008 with plans to transform the site into housing, Birkwood house would be left though as it is Grade II listed now.
Sadly in March 2009 Arsonists set fire to a few of the buildings on the site resulting in one of them being completely destroyed, fortunatley Birkwood House escaped any incidents.
The layout of the Hospital is quite spread out and looks more like a small village and makes for and interesting explore, the majority of the buildings are now sealed to prevent vandals from creating more damage so we didnt bother looking at any of them with to much detail, instead we proceeded straight to Birkwood House which is really the focal point of the entire site.
Looking more like a medieval castle than a Hospital. Birkwood House is simply breath taking, and by far one of the most awesome looking buildings we have ever explored.
Inside is even more stunning, the attention to detail is unreal, the ceilings in some rooms are amazing, the ornate carvings on the walls, solid stone spiral staircases and even a Hair Dressing Salon in the basement.
The real bonus though was the views from the towers which overlook the entire site.
A superb explore of and amazing building.
