Cluny Hill was built in 1863-65 and expanded in 1896/7 and 1905-07. It served as a hydropathic establishment.

Stan Stanfield writes in his ‘A Tour of Cluny’:

The hotel was known as the Cluny Hydro. They used to do water treatments here. It was not special spring water, but it was using water with high pressure hoses, baths, showers, and so forth. The Cluny Hydro was a healing place. It’s been used in the past during the wartime period as a hospice for soldiers. Parts have been added to it over the years.

The property also used to include the golf course. This was part of the hey day of people enjoying going to a really nice prestigious hotel for a holiday, including features like a golf course. But very early on the golf course was split off and became private.

Community Member Kate Waring undertook some research into the history of Cluny during the Covid lockdown and referred to a book by Alexander Munro.

Cluny Hill Hydropathic Company book cover Alexander Munro

 

The research led me to a wonderful book titled ‘Cluny Hill Hydropathic Company’ by the
Reverend Alexander Munro. The book was a guide to the newly built Cluny which was “Erected expressly for the purposes of a Hydropathic Establishment and a Summer and Winter residence for visitors and invalids”.

So it is revealed that the original intention was for Cluny to be a place of healing.

The good Reverend was not just a man of spirituality but also of science as he studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen. He became a Hydrotherapist, a healing therapy popular at the time. It explains why there are so many exceptionally long baths in Cluny….

Cluny was constructed between 1863 and 1865 when Munro became the Superintendent at the Cluny Hill Hydro. Like the Caddys (co-founders of the Foundation community) a hundred years later, he also left for a period of time before returning once again to Cluny.

Munro ran a tight ship and his book is filled with much salient guidance: “Visitors are expected to conform to the rules of the house and are not allowed to bring to table (in the dining room) anything forbidden to patients. It is specially requested that no wines or spirituous liquors be introduced”.

He certainly took his responsibilities to the guests/patients (also referred to as inmates later on) seriously as he embodied the very first love in action at Cluny. He also was aware of the power of co-creation with nature. I’ll leave you with this final quote from the book.

“Medical science in all its branches has undergone a great revolution during the last thirty years, the existence of a healing power in nature is more freely recognised, not only in theory, but also in practice.”

Cluny Hill is also listed on the website Historic Hospitals. The site shows several historic photographs and gives fascinating details.

Historic Hospitals website about Cluny

Featured image from the book Cluny Hill Hydropathic Company Limited Forres Morayshire, by Physician Alexander Munro M.D.