An abandoned hospital village in Scotland has been captured in spectacular drone footage, showing a once busy military medical centre now in disrepair. Based in East Lothian, the former Edenhall Hospital in Musselburgh housed gravely injured soldiers during both World Wars.
Shut down in 2010, YouTube footage shows its surroundings as overgrown ruins with boarded up dwellings lining the soulless streets. While entering the site is dangerous and considered trespassing, many urban explorers have made the trip through the years, eager to catch a glimpse of the spooky setting.
Edenhall Hospital has a rich history and would later expand further to include extra buildings and houses. In the years since its closure, developers have come forward with applications to transform the derelict buildings into homes and flats. But as of now, there have been no confirmed plans for construction, reports Edinburgh Live.
Prior to becoming a hospital, the estate was named Pinkiburn House and was home to the Lindsay family in the early 1820s. During the First World War, the property was sold and became the new Edenhall Hostel for limbless soldiers and sailors, expanding from its smaller Scottish Borders premises in Kelso.
The main estate, along with new extensions, went on to form the basis of the hospital which, during the Second World War, was expanded in the form of further extensions and new huts.
In the early 1950s, Edenhall Hospital was transferred to the NHS and continued to operate for six decades until its closure in 2010 according to the health service. Instead of being demolished or transformed into houses, the estate on which Edenhall is based lies completely frozen in time.
With the building being targeted by vandals in recent years, the area has been cordoned off and is monitored by CCTV cameras. Property developers have earmarked the site for a potential redevelopment project, but Edenhall remains largely untouched for now.
Throughout the years, several explorers and locals have gained access to the site, which resembles somewhat of a ghost village with all the extensions and huts built throughout the First and Second World War left standing to this day, albeit consumed by their surroundings
Originally there were 43 beds in the hospital but wings were added to the mansion house to increase the accommodation to 100 beds. In 1920, the Ministry of Pensions took over the running of the hospital and it was opened to convalescent cases as well as the limbless.
In the period up to the Second World War, it then became the main Ministry of Pensions Hospital in Scotland providing general medical and surgical treatment for war pensioners.
Footage shared online shows the main hospital building, as well as several out-buildings and huts boarded up, although various signs and names of each wing remain such as 'X-Ray' and 'Out-Patients'.
The grounds surrounding the hospital have also become overgrown, while a glass greenhouse to the rear of the main building has had most of its windows smashed.
In 2019, plans were withdrawn for a change of use application to transform the former Pinkieburn House to form eight flats, as well as alterations to a former stable block to form three houses.
A further 52 houses and 12 flats were also earmarked as part of the development. According to the East Lothian Council's planning portal, no further applications for the site have been submitted.
The grounds of the hospital have been fenced off and are security monitored. Due to the dangers of entering a site such a this, and the laws around trespassing, entering is never advised.
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