Cowane's Hospital

This is a photo of the floodlit Cowane's Hospital in Stirling. It is located adjacent to the Church of the Holy Rude, and near Stirling Castle.

It was built by John Cowane between 1637 and 1649. John was a wealthy merchant and Dean of the Merchant Guild. He left funds for an alms house to be built to 'maintain' elderly Guild members. Apparently it was not popular with those who dwelt there due to stringent house rules.

It was also used as Stirling's Guildhall where merchants met and dined. Its other uses were as a schoolhouse and as a hospital during epidemics. It is still used today for various purposes and events.

I think the interior is impressive. The exterior is not. Sad to say that like so many other buildings in the centre of Stirling it is in progressive decay and in need of a facelift if not a deeper renovation. At night the floodlights mask the badly fading whitewashed walls.

In this new era of economic austerity, it will be interesting to see how this building and other historic buildings like it fare in competing for scarce funds for maintaining them. I wonder how many tourists look at this building and wonder why we appear to let our historical assets fall into neglect. In this case a relatively inexpensive freshening of the whitewash would do wonders for its external appearance.

Hope you enjoyed the weekend blippers.