Sunnyside nurses cut turf to start £4.4m housing development

More than 40 ex-nurses from the former Sunnyside Royal Hospital near Montrose have visited the site for the final time.

They enjoyed a last tour of the grounds and cut the turf that will mark Sunnyside’s new lease of life as a multi-million-pound housing development.

During their visit, the former nurses shared stories from their time at the hospital, which closed in 2011, and found out more about the plans for its future.

The turf cutting marked the start of work on the £4.4 million development of 35 affordable homes in the estate grounds.

They are being developed by Sunnyside Estates – a partnership between Tayside construction firm Pert-bruce and Edinburghbased developer FM Group on behalf of Hillcrest Homes – and will be the first of two phases of affordable housing at the site.

Work on the first phase is expected to be completed in summer 2021, with the second phase – which will involve an additional 59 homes – due to get under way the same year.

The 94 homes in total will be earmarked for social rent.

The nurses were joined by Hillcrest chief executive Angela Linton and Sunnyside Estate and Pert-bruce director Jamie Pert.

The original hospital building was founded in 1781 by Susan Carnegie as Montrose Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary and Dispensary, and was located on Montrose Links, receiving a Royal Charter in 1810.

A new and improved asylum was designed by William Lambie Moffat and completed in 1858.

The asylum passed into the ownership of the NHS in 1946 and eventually became Sunnyside Royal Hospital in 1962.

The group at the turf-cutting ceremony.