Lennox Castle is an abandoned castle in
Lennoxtown
Lennoxtown (, ) is a town in the East Dunbartonshire council area and the historic county of Stirlingshire, Scotland. The Campsie Fells are located to Lennoxtown's north. The town had a population of 4,094 at the 2011 UK census.
History
The ...
,
East Dunbartonshire
East Dunbartonshire (; , ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders Glasgow City Council Area to the south, North Lanarkshire to the east, Stirling (council area), Stirling to the north, and West Dunbartonshire to the west. East ...
, Scotland, approximately north of
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
.
It is infamous for previously hosting Lennox Castle Hospital, Scotland's "largest institution for people with learning disabilities".
The castle was built between 1837 and 1841 by
David Hamilton for John Lennox Kincaid, on the Lennox of Woodhead Estate, replacing Kincaid House.
In 1927, the castle and its land was purchased by the
Glasgow Corporation
Glasgow City Council (Scottish Gaelic: ''Comhairle Baile Ghlaschu'') is the local government authority for Glasgow City council area, Scotland. In its modern form it was created in 1996. Glasgow was formerly governed by a corporation, also kno ...
, and converted into a hospital for people with learning disabilities; the hospital opened in 1936.
The castle itself was the nurses' home, whilst its grounds provided accommodation for about 1,200 patients.
''
The Scotsman
''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...
'' reports that soon afterwards, the facilities were "vastly overcrowded, understaffed and underfunded".
By 1982, 1360 patients between the ages of 10 and 80 years old were looked after by around 500 staff- with fewer than half of these being trained nurses. The Scottish Hospitals Advisory Service had visited the year before and recommended a further 100 staff. The care provided by the hospital was reported to be poor, with patients being malnourished.
There was also a separate maternity unit in operation between the 1940s and 1960s;
singer
Lulu
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and footballer
John Brown were among the babies born there.
This hospital was closed in 2002, as a reflection in changes to how society treated patients with learning disabilities with a view to
keeping them in the community.
Further it was noted that patients were treated poorly by staff.
The castle itself (
Category A listed
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since the 1970s) is in ruins following a fire in 2008. Part of the grounds of the castle were converted into
Celtic F.C.
The Celtic Football Club, commonly known as Celtic (), is a professional Association football, football club in Glasgow, Scotland. The team competes in the Scottish Premiership, the top division of Scottish football league system, Scottish ...
's
Lennoxtown Training Centre (opened in 2007),
[Abandoned psychiatric hospital at Celtic's Lennoxtown training ground has a dark history](_blank)
Sean Murphy, Daily Record, 17 July 2020. Retrieved 23 January 2022 while other parts towards Lennoxtown village have become a long-term residential development to be completed in several phases, known as ''Campsie Village''.
Phase 2, Campsie Village
Jones Lang Lasalle Property, 2015
See also
* List of Category A listed buildings in East Dunbartonshire
* List of listed buildings in Campsie, East Dunbartonshire
References
External links
*
*
*
{{coord, 55.9774, -4.2354, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title
Castles in East Dunbartonshire
Lennoxtown
Category A listed buildings in East Dunbartonshire
1841 establishments in Scotland
Buildings and structures completed in 1841