Monument record MHG51545 - Site of former Belford Hospital, Fort William

Information about this site was submitted by Martin Briscoe, a local researcher, in December 2008. The NMRS record for the new hospital to the west (see MHG21966) includes a photograph of this building. <1> The original Belford Hospital lay on the site of Invernevis House. The site has been mapped according to its depiction on the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey map c.1900. <2>

The hospital was commissioned by A Belford, designed by Henry Burrell and was built 1863-5. The building was demolished some time between 1948 and 1965 when it was replaced by the new hospital. The new isolation block, recorded as the Fort William Infectious Diseases Hospital, was commissioned from the architects Messrs L and J Falconer of Fort William in 1901 (see MHG25641). <3>

Mr Belford was a local estate factor who donated the Belford Hospital to Fort William principally for the maternity use of shepherd's wives and other country wives. There were two doctors, Miller and Brander, who both stayed at Achintore. There was no surgeon and people requiring operations were sent to Glasgow. <4>