Crossing Ferry Road and continuing through stone gateposts you enter Erskine Park, the grounds surrounding Erskine House (1828-45), designed by Sir Robert Smirke, the architect of the British Museum.
During the First World War it became the Princess Louise
Hospital for Limbless Sailors and Soldiers.
It is now the 5-star Mar Hall Hotel, its name recalling the
estate's former ownership by the Earl of Mar.
During the early 18th century the Mar estate and old Erskine
House came into the ownership of the Lords Blantyre. In 1828 Major
General Robert W Stuart, the 11th Lord Blantyre and a distinguished
veteran of the Wellington's Peninsular campaigns during the
Napoleonic Wars, commissioned the present house. His
architect, Sir Robert Smirke (1781-1867) was still engaged in
designing the British Museum. That, however, is a very classical
design whereas Erskine House is more Gothic with touches of
Tudor, in the small turrets and pointed arches in the principal
windows and entrance porch. The overall design is similar to
that of Lowther Castle in Cumbria which was Smirke's first country
house design. The stone was quarried locally. Sir Charles
Barry produced designs for the gardens. Sadly Lord Blantyre never
saw his house as he was killed in Brussels during the 1830 uprising
that led to the birth of Belgium. The house was completed only in
1845. The final cost was £50,000, about £2.5m today.
When the Blantyre line became extinct in 1900 the house was left
derelict but in 1916 it re-opened as the Princess Louise Scottish
Hospital of Limbless Sailors and Soldiers, the second largest
specialist hospital of its kind in the UK. There was an acute
shortage of artificial limbs available for the numerous casualties
of the First World War. The hospital's consultant surgeon, Sir
William Macewen, developed a new design, named the Erskine limb,
drawing on the skills of Clydeside shipworkers and the help of the
patients themselves to produce it. Over 600 were fitted. You can
find out more about Macewen in 'A Healing Passion' at the Hunterian
Museum, University of Glasgow. The modern Erskine Hospital,
which continues to work with injured ex-servicemen and women is on
a site nearby.
In recent years £15m has been invested in the refurbishment of
the house and the restoration of its many original features as the
Mar Hall Hotel.
Also at Erskine (Back to listing)