Archived Report - Eastend House, Lanarkshire, September 09

[Ariadne]

This has been reported before, but not for a while. Eastend House was originally a square keep, built around 1500, but has since had various additions in the 18th and 19th centuries which almost completely encase the original building. It currently appears to belong to the Carmichael estate, but they aren't boasting of this, which is perhaps unsurprising given the sorry state of this once-gorgeous stately home.

If I thought I was looking forward to exploring floor after floor of wood panelled rooms and sexy turret staircases, I was so wrong! The building was originally vacated in the early 1990s due to dry rot, but this rot has become decidedly wet, and the whole house seems to be sagging under layer upon layer of saturated stone and woodwork.

There probably ARE floors of wood panelled rooms and sexy turret staircases, but I stuck to the ground floor and was still shitting it the whole time that the ceilings were going to collapse on me! I got as far as the main staircase, which is beautiful, wooden, and very grand, but then peered round the corner and saw how much of the sodden wall next to it was missing, and beat a retreat without bothering to get the camera out.

I wonder whether the recent downpours have helped bring this place to its knees even more quickly this year (for those of you lucky enough to live in kinder climes, we've had about 7 weeks of solid rain here in SW Scotland!). I guess the house was well on the way to that state already though. It hadn't rained for nearly a week when I visited, but you could hear water inside, dripping everywhere, and the wooden door frames, floor joists and panelling were turgid, full of water and just peeling away from the plasterwork. I was on my own and didn't really fancy being buried under tons of rubble, 14th century rubble or not! So the pictures are confined to the ground floor, mainly domestic areas, but this place still has a certain eerie beauty.

Again, some developer is just letting this place rot, and it will end up being demolished because refurbishment won't be feasible. GRRRRRR!

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