Originally Mount Melville House, this imposing early Renaissance mansion located on the western fringe of St Andrews, Fife, latterly served as a maternity hospital and home for the elderly before being abandoned in the early 1990s. Now there are plans to transform the property into apartments, injecting new life into the majestic but rather downtrodden and boarded-up structure.
Mount Melville was built for James Younger, who owned the Edinburgh-based brewery of William Younger and Company, and his family between 1903 and 1905 on the site of an earlier house. The estate was originally owned by the Melville family, a Fife dynasty, which could trace its roots back to the late 17th century, and the original house dated from 1820.
Designed by architect Paul Waterhouse, son-in-law of James Younger, and constructed in red sandstone, the new three to four storey structure was inspired by the Scottish Baronial style of the day and incorporated turreted towers, grand gables and tall shafted chimney stacks.
Inside, there was a grand Italian marble staircase, ornate tilework, stained glass window panels, opulent plaster ceiling moldings, wood-paneled rooms and elaborate period fireplaces. There was also a conservatory on the eastern side of the building. Internal images of the house can be found on Canmore and Derelict Places.
Waterhouse also laid out the grounds which included lakes with a ‘Dutch Village’ of island buildings, an Italian Garden, a walled garden, a temple, a home farm, stable block and various lodges at access points to the mansion. Some of these features of the estate were demolished in the 1960s while others survive within the country park.
The house and 47 acres of land were sold by Mrs Annie Younger to Fife County Council in 1947 and, the following year, the mansion was acquired by the newly created National Health Service (NHS) and became a maternity hospital, named Craigtoun Hospital.
Part of the estate was transformed into a country park, now Craigtoun Country Park, a popular tourist attraction which enjoyed its heyday in the 1960s but continues to draw visitors.
A modern extension (since demolished) was added to the southern gable of the house in 1974 to provide additional ward space, and the building was adapted for geriatric patients in 1979.
The rest of the grounds continued to be farmed until March 1992 when the hospital closed and the building and 330 acres of land to the west were sold by Fife Health Board to the owners of the Old Course Hotel, in St Andrews, who created The Duke’s Course. Plans drawn up at the time to convert the mansion into a luxury golf and country club with hotel accommodation never materialised, although some work was undertaken, and the building has lain empty, becoming increasingly derelict, since then.
A Category B listed building, it was added to the Buildings at Risk Register in 2010 as local concern mounted over the declining condition of the mansion.
In December 2022, a planning application was lodged with Fife Council to convert the mansion into 27 luxury flats and construct 18 townhouses within the grounds, removing some of the existing ancillary buildings but preserving the main features of the house. The application has yet to be determined.
For more abandoned places in Fife, check out the book Abandoned Fife by James Carron, available in paperback from Amazon.
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