Stracathro Hospital is located in NE Angus, 2½ miles (4 km) southeast of Edzell. It was established next to Stracathro House in 1939 as an Emergency Medical Services Hospital, away from population centres for protection, to cope with the military casualties of World War II. Designed to cope with up to 1000 patients, each of the single-storey wards which were built in the grounds of the old house had its own air-raid shelter. The first patients were the victims of an air-raid on Montrose in 1940 but soon civilian casualties from cities such as London, Birmingham and Coventry, and later soldiers from all theatres of the war were transferred to Stracathro, via Brechin railway station, for treatment and convalescence. It subsequently became a noted teaching hospital with specialised departments including orthopaedic surgery and a high-tech surgical appliance unit. Although threatened with closure in the late 1990s, Stracathro continues as a general hospital for NE Angus. Stracathro House, which had provided accommodation for doctors and nurses was sold by Tayside Health Board in 2003 and has reverted to a private residence. In 2005, the hospital was encouraged to develop a treatment and diagnostic centre in conjunction with the private sector with £15 million funding from the Scottish Executive.
