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View Full Version : Archived: Killearn Hospital - Stirlingshire - 06 Dec 08



skin
08-12-2008, 09:20 PM
On a cold frosty morning I took a walk up here to have a look at what remained of Killearn Hospital.

History ;
Killearn Hospital was one of five commisioned in 1938 in preparation for the war. Building started in 1939 and also complete in 1941 in time for the air raids on Clydebank and other Clydeside towns, which could be seen and heard in Killearn.
Local people had been asked to assist in getting the hospital ready to meet the emergency. As well as air raid casualties it was used for treatment of sick and wounded servicemen, injured seamen from convoys arriving in the Clyde, essential war workers, pensioners and Prisoners-of-War. It played an important part in the Clyde Valley Scheme for urgent treatment and care of war workers and was also used for emergency cases from the surrounding population.
The hospital was desgined to provide 640 emergeny beds, but after the War its total bed complement was 404.
In 1948 it joined the National Health Service under the Board of Management for Glasgow Western Hospitals, and developed a renown in the fields of orthopaedics and neurosurgery. Many car crash victims of the 1960s owed their lives to the special skills of the surgeons there.
The hospital's relatively isolated location, some 15 miles north west of Glasgow, meant it was inconvenient for everyone, especially the patients and their families, so much of the hospital's work and facilities were transferred to other units, much going to the Institute of Neurological Sciences at the Southern General Hospital, Govan, with Killearn finally being abandoned in 1972.
In 1979, a proposal to develop the site as a leisure complex failed to attract interest.
In 1997, a survey of the site reported a number of wooden chalet type buildings with verandahs, and some Motor Transport (MT) sheds, all deteriorating, and the entrance blocked with 'Keep Out' signs.
A visit in 2007 gave the impression that many of the buildings described in the 1997 report are gone, with only the more robust structures remaining, and still deteriorating. The privately owned site remains surrounded by 'Private Keep Out' signs. The owner allegedly having his shotgun licence revoked after chasing off legitimate Hydro Electric workers accessing the land.

So onward and into the shotgun toting owners land keeping in mind this place is reported as caked in asbestos also.......


a lovely morning...
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so sad demise for this hospital, large parts of it are being used by farmer as livestock sheds and as general skip for his unwanted stuff. And by the way he has a large dog:ohmy