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A Black Forest buiding in a Deeside setting
Nordrach on Dee, or Glen O’Dee, is located on the west edge of Banchory, Aberdeenshire. It was built in 1900 as one of Britain’s first sanatoria, specialising in the treatment of tuberculosis (TB or consumption). At the end of the nineteenth century, TB was a common illness and the second most common cause of death in the UK. Consumptives in history include most famously the Bronte sisters, Keats, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson and D.H. Lawrence. Until there was better understanding of the disease, sufferers were stigmatised and the disease was thought to be inherited and the sign of a “weak constitution”.
Continental Europe was more advanced than the UK in treating TB. Hermann Brehmer, a Polish doctor who recovered from TB whilst breathing pure Himalayan air developed the “Sanatorium” concept in which consumptives were treated in the open air with regulation of rest and exercise, a good diet and continuous medical supervision. He set up one of the first sanatoria in Gorbersdorf in 1854. After Koch developed his “stains” which allowed the TB bacteria to be identified in 1882, Dr Otto Walther established the Nordach-in-Baden sanatorium amongst the pine woods of the Black Forest of Germany. Pine woods were believed to be of special benefit to consumptives. Many wealthy British people including doctors sought treatment there and their experiences were reported back to the UK. Contemporary accounts describe the strict regime of “regulated exercise” to strengthen the heart, outdoor exposure to stimulate appetite, and relative overnutrition to stimulate weight gain. Music was allowed, but “exciting” books were banned. As there was only space for 50 patients there was a waiting list of over a year and if patients did not follow the treatment regime, they were thrown out.
British doctors who visited European sanatoria were keen to bring their experiences back to UK. One such doctor was David Lawson, a graduate of Aberdeen who was from Banchory and who was to found Nordrach on Dee in his home town. The sanatorium opened on Christmas Eve 1900. No expense was spared in the building of the hospital and brochures were produced to encourage wealthy patients to come to Banchory for the Nordrach treatment
The building faced due south in a clearing on a heavily wooded hillside. It consisted of a central locally-quarried granite building with the remainder of the building being built of timber brought from the Black Forest. It was believed that the TB bacteria would invade the building structure and the wooden construction was to allow the entire building to be burnt down every 20 years (subsequent tests should this was unnecessary). The 40 bedrooms were based on the Nordrach design which facilitated maximum light and fresh air and the hospital was situated in 25 acres of lawns, gardens and woodlands. There were excellent medical facilities including X-ray to monitor disease – this had only been described 5 years previously.
The treatment mirrored that in Germany. The regime depended on a high level of supervision and so the medical staff lived in, dined and generally shared the lives of the patients. Within a few years, Nordrach-on-Dee had a worldwide reputation and the West Wing had to be extended as patients came from Europe, the Commonwealth USA and China! The average patient stay was 7 months but one stayed 22 months. However there was a gradual reappraisal of sanatorium treatment and by the 1920’s there was a move away from this mode of treatment towards surgical therapies to rest the lung which Nordrach could not offer. The number of patients fell and Nordrach-on- Dee closed as a sanatorium in 1928. It reopened in 1934 as the “Glen O’Dee Hotel” then in 1941 was requisitioned for war-time army use. After the war, the Scottish Red Cross purchased Glen O’Dee and Tor-na-Dee in Milltimber Aberdeen as the “Red Cross Sanatoria of Scotland” to be used solely for the treatment of ex-members of the Armed Forces. The Red Cross ran them until 1955 when they were both incorporated into the NHS as a convalescent hospital. In 1964, it like other snmall hospitals in the area became a typhoid hospital during the Aberdeen contaminated corn beef typhoid outbreak. It finally closed as a hospital in the 1990’s.
In 1993, Glen-O-Dee was one of the unsuccessful participants in the BBC TV programme “Restoration”. Its failure to reach the final intensified fears that the Grade A listed building would be demolished. Currently it is empty, delapidated and falling down although other areas within the grounds are still still used for health care purposes.
The cache is a magnetic nano. Please take your own pen / pencil. From the cache site it is possible to see the true grandeur of the original building.
The log-book has been replaced.
Additional Hints
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Orjner - ybbx bhg sbe gur fvtaf. Pbhyq or fyvccl sbe gur fgnss gb cnex gurve pnef va gur eubqrqraqebaf?