The former Old Deer Fever Hospital

A short walk from Pitfour along the Line from Taitswell towards Deer Abbey in search of the old fever hospital led to an interesting digression, the discovery of  a badger sett and a circular walk through Pitfour to our starting point. There are several possible circular routes in this area involving attractive walks along the Line and digressions through Aden Park, Old Deer or Pitfour Estate. All are worth exploring, especially by those who dislike 'there and back'  walks for which the Line is often criticised by the unobservant who do not notice how different the coutryside looks when heading in the opposite direction. 

Hawthorn on the embankment close to the bridge carrying the B9030 (Stuartfield) road over the Line. There is a path leading to Aden Park, and Old Deer adjacent  to  the bridge. Crossing the Line the path leads up to the South Lodge of Pitfour and continues within the estate.

Fox-and-cubs or Orange Hawkweed, (Hieracium aurantiacum) grows on the drier section of the permanent way beyond the bridge. Other less striking yellow hawkweeds, flowers of mid summer are also starting to flower. 

A short distance to the west of the bridge in a damp meadow between the the Line and the A950 is this cottage, now enlarged but originally a small 'fever hospital' serving Old Deer.

For a brief period between 1884 and 1906 the small cottage, since extended, operated as a tiny fever hospital. The hospital which only had a handful of beds was situated here to be outside the village but conveniently close to Mavisbank, at that period the home of the Old Deer doctor. Most patients admitted to the hospital would have been suffering from scarlet fever or typhoid fever. The hospital was far too small to handle the number of patients needing to be isolated if there was a major outbreak of an infection and thus closed in 1906, by which time a larger isolation hospital had been opened in Strichen.

South Lodge Pitfour from the Line. The pillar to the right of the Lodge is one of  a pair flanking the main entrance to the estate which form part of a memorial to William Pitt the Younger and Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville.

The former isolation hospital, now modernised and extended.

A network of meandering footpaths has been constructed leading from Old Deer along the bank of  the Ugie, crossing the Line then wandering round the damp, low-lying,  meadow on the north side of the Line. The path eventually leads to Saplinbrae and the Pitfour Estate. The bank just visible in the trees on the far side of the meadow which is home to badgers. The burn which flows through the area carries the outflow from the artificial lake of Pitfour down to the Ugie.

Entrance to a badger sett in the embankment

Looking across the field with the footpaths towards  the old fever hospital  in the middle distance and beyond it the South Lodge. The field has large quantities of damp loving plants such as fragrant meadowsweet, spearwort, pink spikes of  bistort and pale mauve cuckoo flower.