The hospital was designed by
John Lamb Murray to accommodate 500 patients and opened as the
Lanark District Asylum in 1895. The complex included staff-houses, gardens, a farm, a power-plant, a reservoir, a railway-line and a cemetery. Its sister facility, the Hartwoodhill Hospital, which was designed by James Lochhead as a 'mental deficiency' hospital, was erected on the east side of Hartwood Road in 1935. In November 2025, a large fire caused substantial damage to the hospital's former Nurses' Home structure. In February 2020 it was reported that portions of
Matt Reeves's
The Batman were being filmed at the location, with the site dressed as Gotham Orphanage. ==References==