Dumfries hospital site sold for five-star hotel cost £50,000

The Crichton Hall building was sold for £50,000 to be developed as a five-star hotel

Part of a former psychiatric hospital site being turned into a five-star hotel was sold for £50,000, it has emerged.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway did the deal for the Crichton Hall earlier this year with the owners of the Fonab Castle Hotel in Pitlochry.

The health board has now revealed how much it made from the sale of the building opened in 1839.

It said the deal would save about £800,000-a-year in running costs.

The health board said a maintenance backlog ran to £10m

It also said that the building's maintenance backlog ran to about £10m.

The deal to sell the Dumfries property - which was being used as the health board's administrative headquarters - was concluded in March this year.

Staff affected have been moved into the old Dumfries Infirmary building, now redeveloped as the Mountainhall Treatment Centre.

Meanwhile, it is hoped more than 200 jobs can be created at the new hotel development.

Staff from Crichton Hall have been moved to the redeveloped old Dumfries Infirmary site

The sale price was revealed alongside the health board's Sustainability and Modernisation (SAM) programme.

It is aimed at meeting the "changing needs" of the region's population while addressing "well-documented financial challenges".